WHL Consulting and 360 Cities Collaborate on Bringing Panoramic Photography to Project:Exposure

Ethan Gelber
14 April 2010

The effect is stunning. For armchair explorers it’s about as close to a live visual experience of a place as one can get. Immersive spherical panoramic photography, sometimes called VR (virtual reality) photography, practically puts the viewer in the place of the photographer, the latter having taken multiple digital photos of a place, covering it in every direction from a single viewpoint. These are then stitched together with a computer to create a completely seamless, smooth 360-degree image.

Sani Top Chalet in South Africa

These striking cutting-edge visuals – VR images and virtual tours – are now being made available to locally owned and operated hotels and tour operators as part of a groundbreaking small-business tourism-development program, called Project:Exposure.

Project:Exposure Exposed

Project:Exposure was Initially created and launched by WHL Consulting, a professional services company with a singular focus on providing innovative, high-tech solutions to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the tourism industry. Project:Exposure provides targeted assistance to locally owned and operated hotels and tour operators, helping them acquire the tools and knowledge for successful online marketing through established far-reaching distribution partners.

Jan Vrsinsky on location in South Africa for 360 Cities and Project:Exposure at the Sani Top Chalet, shooting the material that would go into making the panoramic image at the top of this page

In practical terms, the Project:Exposure program completes an audit of existing tourism products in a specific destination and then drives the development of high-quality photographs, professionally written content and authoritative marketing material essential when selling travel product in any medium. Program participants are also given the opportunity to examine firsthand the benefits and effects of Project:Exposure through WHL Consulting Market Access Training seminars on the dynamics and significance of the Internet and e-commerce in tourism.

Now, 360 Cities, a company that hosts, commissions and develops the largest and fastest-growing collection of immersive, panoramic images on the web, has joined WHL Consulting as strategic implementation partner of Project:Exposure, adding the guarantee of their unparalleled product to the suite of goods and services on offer to Project:Exposure participants and clients.

“360 Cities’ position as the leading site for immersive panoramic photography, as well as its extensive network of immersive photography, experts makes them an ideal partner for Project:Exposure,” said Zachary Rozga, CEO of WHL Consulting. “Every single property that participates in Project:Exposure will now receive a fully-spherical panoramic image distributed through the 360 Cities platform of over 3 million visitors per month.”

Jan Vrsinsky, a 360 Cities photographer, works on a Project:Exposure shoot on location in Under-the-Berg, Himeville, a town situated in the Southern Drakensberg foothills, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Empowering Locals

Both WHL Consulting and 360 Cities, innovators in their fields, also see cooperation on Project:Exposure as an opportunity to advance a shared commitment to empowering local small and medium enterprises around the world.

Both companies have built their businesses on platforms that allow for local partners to upload and manage content through centralized processes. The alignment of WHL Consulting and 360 Cities means that the 360 Cities photographer members – the world’s best panoramic photographers – have a new and promising paid outlet through which to apply their skills in the service of local entrepreneurs who otherwise could not afford them.

Jeffrey S. Martin, founder and CEO of 360Cities.net, expressed optimism that “both local tourism destinations and 360 Cities’ local photographers will benefit from the cooperation on Project:Exposure.”