Tools for Tourism--The StreetWalker Approach

Tourists generally need lots of information when planning a trip. Those considering a visit to a small city or a rural area have some additional concerns over a tourist planning a trip to a big city like San Francisco. They want to know, "What's there?", "If I stay in a hotel here, are there restaurants nearby?" And "Am I going to end up in a place that's far away from what I really want to see?" Conventional maps and traditional ways of organizing web sites don't help much here. StreetWalker, though, is designed to solve this problem.
The map at the right shows the basic approach. Only those businesses and attractions likely to be of interest to tourists are shown. This map particular is for a neighborhood in the California Sierra foothills town of Murphys. When a user moves the mouse above the "bubble" that labels a particular business or attraction (here Murphys Hotel), a popup appears with a photo and description. The user can then click if desired to get more information.
By moving the mouse around the map, the user can virtually "walk down the street" and, in a very natural and highly efficient way, absorb the information of what's where.

In exploring this way, the tourist will build up a "mental map" of the area. When the tourist later comes to visit, he or she is far less likely to get lost. The effectiveness of this approach also has benefits to the town. Tourists will be attracted to a place that they can easily find their way around. And tourists are likely to discover more things of interest and to plan a trip where they stay longer, see more things, and spend more money.

To explore other neighborhoods or towns, the user presses the "Up to Town Map" blue button at the upper left corner of the map. The resulting Town Map is shown at the right. The Town Map shows different neighborhoods, and a popup with a photo and description of the neighborhood appears when a user moves the mouse over the bubble for that neighborhood.
In addition to the town and neighborhood maps, specialized maps can be included. These might include "Lodging", "Eat & Drink", and others depending upon what is available in the town. The Murphys site, for example, includes a "Wine Tasting" map.
In the case of counties or regions, another style of map shows individual towns and cities, with popups showing a photo and description of the town or city. For an example of this see the Yosemite Region site.