Description
Brochures full of snapshots assisted with simple locator maps can adequately describe a destination but nothing rivals the power of instant spacial perception achieved by portraying a region in a sweeping 3-dimensional view through a well designed panorama map. It allows prospective visitors to roam and to explore even before leaving home. It heightens interest and anticipation and also makes a memorable souvenir to take back. Do such maps still have relevance in a world of Google Earth and Bing? Absolutely, because the power of visual representation of a good panoramic tourist map lies in its clever use of a progressive central perspective in translation the foreshortening of the foreground and the highlighting of features of interest, even in the background. The curvature of the earth is furthermore greatly exaggerated to bring out details and valley bottoms which could not be seen in a normal perspective view. Panoramic maps are complementing the Google Earth experience and vice versa. Panoramic maps are absorbed easily by the viewer, because they complement our sense of visual perception. They have a long history in destination marketing and as tourist orientation maps. A list of some of their uses: The images ' Vancouver & Fraser Valley ' and ' Sea to Sky Region ' were created through the joint effort of Winfried Kettler Panorama-Studio and Wolfgang Wittenburg of Vistascene Maps Ltd. Winfried Kettler is one of Europe's foremost artists of the genre, and he has produced panoramic maps for many of the Alpine region's Tourism Associations from his studio in the Swiss Alps.
