Technology: Online mapping products

Increasing numbers of hospitality companies are incorporating mapping technologies into their websites to give direction to customers. Sophisticated satellite and geopositioning know-how enhances a website's attractiveness, encouraging visitors to spend more time on the site and make bookings.

Below, we have sampled some of the online mapping products currently on the market.

Google - Google Earth Google is mainly responsible for igniting the popular interest in online mapping technologies. Its ground-breaking Google Earth product allows users to zoom down from a satellite image of the earth to a detailed view of a landscape or city.

Hospitality companies can integrate the technology into their websites at no cost using Javascript, a standard programming language. The reason Google isn't charging is, according to product marketing manager Andy Ku, because it believes the most innovative uses of Google Earth will come from letting people play and experiment with the product.

One company already using Google Earth on its website is Thomson Holidays, so customers can find the exact location of its hotels and resorts.

"Customers like playing with this type of technology. It's fun but also useful in showing how far a hotel is from the beach or other attractions," says head of new media Graham Donoghue.

For the future, Donoghue would like to combine Google Earth with global positioning system (GPS) technology, so relatives and friends can track the progress of flights or cruise ships.

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Multimap To emphasise the relationship between the hospitality industry and mapping technology, UK company Multimap recently included a hotel booking engine on its own website.

Offering detailed street map coverage of most of the world, Multimap's products can also be found on more than 1,000 business customer websites including Lastminute.com, Opodo and Active Hotels.

Multimap is also working with a number of leading brands, such as Vodafone Live!, Lastminute.com and Yell.com, to deliver mapping services via mobile devices.

"Mobile devices provide portability for maps, allowing customers to take location information ‘on the road' with them by sending a map from businesses' websites to their mobile device," says chairman Sean Phelan.

www.multimap.com](http://www.multimap.com) Microsoft - Virtual Earth Software giant Microsoft has been quick to identify the potential of digital mapping technologies and is currently investing serious amounts of time and money into a product called Virtual Earth. According to Peter Williams, international marketing manager for location products and services, Virtual Earth combines the same satellite imagery used by Google with "bird's-eye" images taken from an aeroplane flying at 3,000ft. The result? "A richer, immersive view of a location that, from a hospitality and tourism point of view, will allow guests to pinpoint much more detail, such as where entrances are and the height of buildings," says Williams. Work on the aerial photography continues, with 10 UK cities - see Portsmouth and Southampton images above - completed so far. By 2008, Microsoft plans to have photographed about 80% of Europe's major cities. The next phase will be to combine this photography with images taken at street level, so users can manipulate the maps to see actual building frontages. As these maps are completed, companies will be able to incorporate them into their websites, paying a charge based on usage. [www.microsoft.com/virtualearth](http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth)Mapquest Working with the likes of Hilton, Starwood, Pizza Hut and Burger King in the USA, Mapquest's products now cover Europe, where the mapping company is planning aggressive expansion. Using Mapquest's products, customers can search in numerous ways. One hotel chain uses its "search by drive time" feature, which enables users to find the closest hotel by drive time instead of the standard radius search. Another chain uses interactive multicoloured icons to show hotels that are "available", "might be available" or "booked" right on the map. Another innovation is Mapquest's proximity search, where users can search for an amenity or service, such as a park or museum, and then ask for hotels or restaurants within a certain distance. Costing from about $4,000 (£2,100) for a standard implementation, Mapquest also has a sophisticated route-planning function, where users can ask to see the hotels or restaurants that lie along a certain driving route. [www.mapquest.com](http://www.mapquest.com) Web design agencies Many web design agencies have developed their own mapping technology, including travel website design specialist Netizen, whose product is called Interactive Maps. According to head of marketing Fiona Canavan, maps encourage people to explore and interact on a website. "And the longer you engage a visitor, the more likely they are to book with you," she says. Interactive Maps allows companies to add all sorts of extra information to a basic map. Visitors clicking on a particular location can be taken through to photos, videos and other media all designed to prolong use of the website. At web design agency Nucleus, which has built maps for five-star hotel consortium Luxury Explorer, managing director Peter Matthews says a growing number of websites are putting maps at the forefront of their search function. "The first question many travel websites used to ask was, ‘When do you want to travel?' Now, increasingly, the first question is ‘Where?'" he says. [www.netizen.co.uk/products/interactive-maps](http://www.netizen.co.uk/products/interactive-maps) [www.nucleus.co.uk