2012-03-30

Google Welcomes the World to Thailand with Brand New Street View Imagery


March'12 Google, together with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, announced that Street View imagery of three major areas in Thailand is now live on Google Maps. This imagery allows users in Thailand and around the world to view and navigate 360-degree street-level imagery. Thailand is the 35th country where Street View imagery is available.


For the first time, Google is exposing gorgeous, hedonistic and possibly even embarrassing photos of people, beaches, entertainment zones, hotels, homes, temples and other scenes in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket via its Street View maps.

Anyone in the world can go online and, for free, gawk at Google's pictures, which are "digitally stitched" together to offer a movable journey through Thailand's three famous tourism hotspots -- including countless shots of Thais and foreigners unaware they've been photographed.


Google hopes its newest Street View portal will emphasize the paradises and delights of Thailand, and lure more tourists to enjoy the lusciousness this Southeast Asian tropical land offers.

"We drove Phuket, Chiang Mai and Greater Bangkok and we got 95 percent of those areas, and have images that are 360-degree panoramas," says David Marx, global communications and public affairs manager for Google Asia Pacific.

"Tourists within Thailand and outside of Thailand can use this as kind of a tool to plan their trips and to virtually explore Thailand."