Panoramic Dreams
A new kind of travel guide that takes travellers to the heart of their future destinations
FRANÇAIS |
DEUTSCH
A long story
The Pictorial Guides were born out of the cultural medium
www.fusions.ch which gradually became oriented towards tourism, with an approach based largely on photography, a powerful promotional tool.
With the development of the mobile web came
www.iswitzerland.net in 2010 and
www.cyclades.mobi in 2014, online travel guides dedicated to Switzerland and the Cyclades, including detailed information, useful links, maps and countless photos.
After the introduction of Google Street View in 2007, the development of "double symmetrical fisheye" cameras since 2015 opened up new perspectives in tourism photography, which we started to evaluate in 2016.
An extraordinary potential
Our evaluation phase immediately showed the extraordinary potential of this type of photography thanks to the synergy with Google Maps, Street View, Google Earth, and Google Business, based exclusively on free services.
The immediate impact of our Switzerland panoramas (more than 1 million views in 2017), as well as our rapid endorsement as Google Street View Trusted Photographers, have convinced us to develop ambitious projects for tourism.
The 360° panoramas of our first major project, in the Cyclades archipelago, had over 13 million views in 2018, and as many in 2019. Then came the pandemic... and with the lockdown a lot of time to develop a new 100% panoramic travel guide.
An immersive traveller's guide
As Google Maps and Street View allow the integration of 360° panoramas into a website, we have developed
www.pictorialguides.com on a brand new basis, relying on a selection of our most beautiful panoramas shot in Switzerland and Greece.
Each panorama is commentated, precisely located and linked to
www.iswitzerland.net or
www.cyclades.mobi, where the destination is presented in more detail, with contact information and links to the tourist office's website and to the Wikipedia page about the place.
Our guide is thus totally oriented towards travellers, who will find all the useful information they need to discover in the real world the "virtual strolls" that make them dream in front of their screens.
A mind-blowing impact
From 2020 onwards, the development of the Pictorial Guides has focused on Switzerland and close areas of the neighbouring countries, the impact of which is shown on the red graph. The progression is meteoric: after a relative drop due to the pandemic, there were 5.7 million views in 2021, more than 17 million views in 2022, and over 31 million from January to November 2023.
Most of the impact comes directly from Google Maps and Street View, which is one of the factors that explain the increase in the number of views. The second factor is of course the total number of panoramas, which is constantly increasing.
The 3752 panoramas shot in the Cyclades (blue graph), whose number has not increased since October 2020, continue to be subject to seasonal variations, reaching their peak impact each summer, with an annual impact varying from 10 to 13 million views.
The panoramas integrated into Google Maps and Street View are therefore a long-term investment, guaranteeing promotion with no time limit and no annual costs.
A not-for-profit company
The Pictorial Guides is an independent non-profit company open to all synergies. The destinations we present are chosen by us or based on recommendations from travellers. We are also open to suggestions and proposals from all tourism stakeholders.
Thanks to the integration in Google Maps, Street View and our websites, our panoramas are a powerful promotional tool, completely free of charge, for all destinations wishing to boost their image.
This integration is also possible, royalty-free, in any official or unofficial site, as well as in blogs, with the exception of social networks and other web vectors that do not support the tags provided free of charge by Google.
Synergies with tourism stakeholders
Many of our panoramas could be shot thanks to the logistical support of tourist offices and transport companies in the Upper Valais (Zermatt, Saas Fee, Aletsch Glacier), Valle d'Aosta (Courmayeur, Cervinia-Breuil), Central Switzerland (Lucerne, Engelberg, Stoos, Stans) and the Bernese Oberland (Ballenberg).
In 2023, we relocated our headquarters in Valais. During this transitional year, we shot exclusively in the Sierre region, and we'll be extending our reach again in 2024 to bring new, attractive destinations to Google users and visitors of our websites. We welcome your suggestions, anywhere in Switzerland and Europe!
The brand new concept of the Pictorial Guides is a unique opportunity to show the world the assets of any tourist destination, be it prestigious or not yet well known.
