Nevada tourism agency partners with Google Maps in trekker campaign

TravelNevada joins the elite club of destination marketing organizations to borrow the Google Street View Trekker to collect images of less-traveled areas in Nevada for use on Google Maps. The areas will also be mapped on the TravelNevada website and available for use by any participating tourism entity, such as the many Nevada state parks that aided in filming.

The Google Trekker is a 360-degree camera system, made of 15 cameras in a spherical dome, perched atop a metal-framed backpack that can be worn anywhere it can fit. Every two seconds the Trekker cameras take a photo, which are later stitched together, creating the 360-degree images seen on the “street view” section of Google Maps.

“Nevada is home to innovators and big thinkers – Tesla, Switch and Zappos,” Claudia Vecchio, director of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, said. “We embrace new technology and allow room for dreamers to dream. That’s why Google Trekker made sense for TravelNevada. This is an exciting, new way to show our state to potential travelers and be among the first to use Google’s newest technology.”

The photography captures many aspects of Nevada’s public lands that are often unseen by locals and travelers alike giving viewers a first-hand look at what these previously undocumented areas really look and feel like, educating and encouraging people to explore the state further.

TravelNevada Content Manager Sydney Martinez led the Google Trekker program. Martinez worked with local guides around the state to select key locations within each region that showcase Nevada’s diverse landscape and highlight integral stories of culture, history and people that foster the Nevada spirit. Each Nevadan captured images of their chosen location by carrying the Trekker, many times hiking, paddling or driving the 42-pound camera up mountains, through marshes, and across valleys. Although users won’t be able to see the cameraman or woman, each Google Street View location is truly a walk in a Nevadan’s shoes. 

TravelNevada applied to use the Trekker in 2015 and successfully filmed 22 northwest, eastern, central and southern Nevada locations over the course of three weeks.

Check out the Google Street View Trekker experience at www.TravelNevada.com/google-trekker and see behind-the-scenes photography at www.Flickr.com/Photos/TravelNevada. To access the TravelNevada Trekker footage live on Google Maps, go to maps.google.com and enter the location you’d like to explore. You may then select the Street View thumbnail or click on the yellow Street View Pegman in the lower right hand corner and drag the icon to one of the featured location. The experience is also available on Google Maps for mobile on both Android and iOS.

The newly photographed Nevada locations in Google Maps are listed below:
• Fort Churchill State Park
• Mormon Station State Park
• Lake Tahoe State Park
• Pyramid Lake
• Lovelock Cave
• Lamoille Canyon
• Angel Lake
• Churchill Vineyards
• Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge
• Sand Mountain State Recreation Area
• Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park
• Hickison Petroglyphs
• Spencer Hot Springs
• Belmont Ghost Town
• Nevada Northern Railway
• Cathedral Gorge State Park
• Kershaw-Ryan State Park
• Valley of Fire State Park
• Techatticup at Eldorado Canyon
• Rhyolite Ghost Town & Goldwell Open Air Museum
• International Car Forest of the Last Church
• Tonopah Mining Park

About TravelNevada
The Nevada Division of Tourism (TravelNevada) is part of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs. It promotes and markets Nevada as a tourism destination for domestic and international leisure and business travelers through its marketing and advertising programs and by coordinating partnerships between public and private entities. TravelNevada also administers grant programs for local entities to market travel and tourism offerings and publishes Nevada Magazine.