Tourists are being invited to scale Mount Everest without leaving the comfort of their sofas with the world’s first interactive 3D virtual tour of the highest mountain on Earth.
The technology has been developed by the Nepal Tourism Board and tech firm 3rd Planet, which says its software will allow virtual trekkers to experience realistic sights and sounds from the roof of the world at the click of a mouse.
“The beauty of Nepal cannot just be described in pictures and words, and 3rd Planet has an amazing technology that enables us to showcase our country in a totally new dimension,” Prachanda Man Shrestha, CEO of the Nepal Tourism Board, said.
The application, which will be available free-of-charge on the Internet before the end of the year, will also take in many of Nepal’s ten UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the tourism board says.
“This project is a significant milestone for Nepal as the Nepal Tourism Board is the first official tourism board that utilises this cutting-edge technology,” said Pawan Tuladhar, chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association Nepal Chapter.
“Users will experience the sights and sounds of several tourism locations in the ‘Journey to Everest’ online, and you’ll be surprised to find that Nepal has a lot more to offer to the global audience than Mount Everest.”
During the summer scientists installed the world’s highest webcam in the Nepalese Himalayas, setting it up to beam live images of Everest’s 8,848-metre (29,028-foot) summit back to researchers studying the effects of climate change. See my post about it here.