Google's Street View guides are typically designed to give users virtual tours of real life cities, but the software experience has recently been repurposed to address an undeniable aspect of the cultural zeitgeist. Google's newest Street View guide pinpoint several of the on-location sets used in the filming of 'Game of Thrones,' the massively popular HBO fantasy series.
The Game of Thrones Street View guide includes more than a dozen sets from the series. It's organized by house, so serious fans can virtually visit the locations based on their own personal allegiances. For the Starks, it includes the Scottish castle that plays Winterfell. Lannisters can repay their debts with a visit to Dubrovnik, where King's Landing is filmed, and Targaryen's can fly faster than dragons to across the Dothraki Sea, which is in Northern Spain.
Fantasy Location Guides
Googles New Street View Guide Shows Off 'Game of Thrones' Locations
Trend Themes
1. Virtual Location Tours - There is an opportunity to develop virtual location tours for other popular TV series and movies, giving fans a unique and immersive experience.
2. Fan-driven Tourism - Fans of popular TV series and movies can create a demand for tourism experiences centered around visiting filming locations, providing opportunities for unique and specialized travel experiences.
3. Repurposing Virtual Reality - Repurposing virtual reality technology, like Google's Street View, to create interactive and immersive guides for real-world locations can open up new possibilities for tourism, education, and exploration.
Industry Implications
1. Tourism - The tourism industry can capitalize on the demand for immersive location experiences by offering guided tours, travel packages, and experiences based on popular TV series and film locations.
2. Entertainment - The entertainment industry can partner with technology companies to create virtual reality and augmented reality experiences that allow fans to explore and interact with fictional worlds from their favorite shows and movies.
3. Technology - Technology companies can continue to innovate in virtual reality and augmented reality technology to create more interactive and realistic virtual location experiences for consumers, further enhancing the tourism and entertainment industries.