Springs attractions debut in 360-degree virtual tour

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 29, 1999

So, you're a Colorado Springs company that's just recruited a new employee to town, and you'd like to help him or her get a feel for how the city looks before arrival.

Voila. Cyberspace to the rescue - again.

Virtual Relocation.Com Inc. of Portland, Ore., a moving and relocation online service, has recently unveiled what it says is the first and largest set of full-color, 360-degree virtual tours of cities around the nation.

Go to www.virtualrelocation.com/tourcities.html, and click on Colorado Springs. You'll then have the chance to view various local attractions of our fair city, such as the Cave of the Winds, the Colorado Springs World Arena, The Citadel mall and Chapel Hills Mall, Garden of the Gods, the Pikes Peak Center and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

The view from the Web site is a virtual one: instead of a flat, static picture, the image takes you on a 360-degree tour of the particular attraction. It's as if you're holding a video camera and turning yourself in a circle so that you get a 360-degree view of our area.

Virtual Relocation.Com, in conjunction with Utour.com, another Portland company, used more than 1,000, 360-degree images of more than 50 cities, including the Springs. More cities eventually will be added.

Besides the virtual images of area attractions, the Web sites for the Springs and other cities offer a host of other links - including information about the cost of living, weather or schools.

- Rich Laden