Tallahassee, Florida – For summer 2014, VISIT FLORIDA unveiled online tools allowing travelers to virtually walk hundreds of miles of Sunshine State beaches – from legendary locations such as Miami Beach to lesser-known sanctuaries such as Cayo Costa.

Say hello to Florida Beach Finder, found on VISITFLORIDA.com/beachfinder. Here's how it works...

“Tune” your preferences in four ranges of beach personalities. Looking for “Action-packed”? “Secluded”? Or maybe somewhere in between? Florida Beach Finder immediately delivers visual choices that best match your desires. With every tweak of the tuner, the options change before your eyes.

Then “walk” the Florida beaches you love with immersive Street View imagery in Google Maps. In one of the first partnerships of the Street View Trekker Loan Program, VISIT FLORIDA and Google collaborated on a four-month trek, completed in November 2013, to photograph Florida's beaches and to make the imagery available to the world. The same technology that lets viewers mouse around their city streets and tour monuments now empowers Florida beach lovers to view the sand, sky and shorelines of the beaches they choose to explore – all in 360-degree panorama.

“For potential visitors, it's an opportunity to dig their virtual toes into any of Florida's beaches -- and find their dream beach before they come. For Florida, it's an opportunity to showcase that we have the greatest variety of beach experiences in the world," said Susannah Costello, VISIT FLORIDA Vice President, Global Brand.

With each beach, Florida Beach Finder users can absorb videos, photography and feature stories reported by award-winning Florida journalists. And social media tools will allow visitors to share their discoveries with friends and family.

Florida beaches are top of mind for many travelers. With Florida Beach Finder and the Street View technology these destinations – both the internationally famous and the well-kept secrets – will come into focus better than ever.

MEDIA ASSETS:

Digital assets may be downloaded from the digital release on Pitch Engine.

VISIT FLORIDA Partners with Google Maps to Showcase State's Beaches in Street View

World's largest collection of beaches imagery now available on the world's largest search engine

Tallahassee, Florida – In a landmark partnership with Google, VISIT FLORIDA – the state's official tourism marketing corporation – completed a four-month odyssey to capture stunning images along the Sunshine State's 825 miles of beaches using Google's Street View Trekker technology.  These 360-degree images, captured one footstep at a time, are integrated into Google Maps, enabling potential visitors from around the globe to experience interactive views of Florida's world-renowned beaches before they ever leave home.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said, “This technology from Google will allow anyone in the world to see how vast and beautiful Florida's beaches are, which will create more opportunities for tourism.  While this technology will better connect the world to Florida's beaches, there's no substitute for the realthing.  For anyone who's interested in Florida's beaches, this will ultimately be a great tool so theycan better plan for their next trip to the Sunshine State.”

The imagery was collected by two-person teams (trained by Google Maps experts) who carried the Street View Trekker along roughly 50 miles of beaches each week. The Trekker is a wearable backpack with a camera system on top. Its 15 lenses aim in various directions to capture a complete picture of a location. The images were stitched together into 360-degree panoramic views, showing shorelines, sand dunes, waterscapes, skies, wildlife, beach houses and other features.  The completed imagery enables viewers to digitally explore Florida shorelines step by step.

A video of the Google Street View trek of Florida's beaches can be found here: The Ultimate Selfie: VISIT FLORIDA.com's Photo Panorama

“With 825 miles of beaches, Florida is the world's definitive beach destination,” said Will Seccombe, President and CEO of VISIT FLORIDA.  “Partnering with Google Maps to document the beauty and diversity of Florida's beaches and coastline using this amazing technology will allow people to see parts of the Sunshine State they may never have discovered on their own.”

“VISIT FLORIDA loves to engage with our visitors through interactive storytelling, and there's nobetter way to tell the Sunshine State story than through this incredible partnership opportunity with the world's largest search engine,” said Paul Phipps, Chief  Marketing Officer for VISIT FLORIDA. “I can hardly wait for everyone to see the final images.”

MEDIA CONTACTS

In London: Samantha@goshpr.co.uk or call 0207 3676748

In Florida: Laura Cassels, VISIT FLORIDA, lcassels@VISITFLORIDA.org, (850) 205-3839(850) 205-3839

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As the Sunshine State's No. 1 industry, tourism was responsible for welcoming 93.7 million visitors in 2013 who spent $76.1 billion, generating 23 percent of the state's sales tax revenue and employing nearly 1.1 million Floridians. For every $1 spent on tourism marketing, VISIT FLORIDA – the state's official tourism marketing corporation – generates more than $390 in tourism spending and $23 in new sales tax collections, paid by visitors, not residents. VISIT FLORIDA promotes tourism to Florida through sales, advertising, promotions, public relations and visitor services programs. As a public/private partnership, VISIT FLORIDA serves more than 12,000 tourism industry businesses, including major strategic alliance partnerships with The Hertz Corporation, LEGOLAND Florida Resort, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, Universal Orlando Resort and Disney Destinations. To learn more about VISIT FLORIDA, please go to www.VISITFLORIDA.org or follow our corporate blog at www.SunshineMatters.org.