A new travel web site is coming soon, called 3rd Planet (www.3rdplanet.com), which will give would-be travelers a taste of their desired destination before they even get there. The web site will not only provide information about the travel location, it will give users a 3-D look around the place they want to go. The 3-D technology that will be used on this web site will give soon-to-be travelers a realistic look at the most popular sites in a country with built-to-scale reconstructions of actual places within famous destinations.

The creative mind behind this unique web site is Singaporean entrepreneur Mr. Terence Mak, the Chief Executive of 3rd Planet. In describing the web site, he said: “It maximizes their time at the destination, as they know which historically significant attractions to focus on, where the sites are located relative to one another, and where to explore next. It will give travelers a chance to preview a city and make their plans on what they will do and where they will go once they get there.”

Mr. Mak said this will be the first site in the world to make use of interactive 3-D technology to present tourism information. The company’s future plans include incorporating flight routes and real weather patterns into a virtual globe along with interior views of buildings. “It’s a whole new era,” he said.

3rd Planet is expected to launch later this year and at first will feature Nepal, with 6 or 7 other countries currently being worked on. The company works with national tourism organizations (NTO) to build 3-D replicas of their own particular destination to present on the 3rd Planet web site. What better for way for an NTO to market their location than by providing a potential visitor with the opportunity to “go there” before they actually go there? 3rd Planet is also working with tourism boards, hotels, shopping malls, airlines, and other attractions to make 3-D reconstructions.

What sets this marketing platform apart from others is its commitment to the recreation of reality and an immersive 3-D environment. All images, environments, content, and cityscapes are designed to be as life-like and accurate as possible to the real world, and web site information and location scenes in 3-D can be embedded in the existing web portals of the tourism boards to help enhance the impact of the special location.
“Destination marketing has always been a challenge for most locations, and it is about time we use a new platform to educate and show global consumers how the location really looks like and what they can expect to do there. Air travel and tourism is booming with the availability of budget airlines, and consumers are beginning to be more world conscious. What is missing is a 3D technology to showcase that destination to a global audience,” said Mr. Mak.

Partners who wish to have their location “virtualized” on the site will be charged a fee, the amount depending on the structure’s complexity and the amount of complementary content to be included. For more information, contact Mr. Terence Mak at [email protected] .

To see a concept of what this new web site will be like, take a look at this exciting video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGTaTGYNrEg