Galveston.com To Become First CVB Website to Promote Tourism via Virtual Reality

Tourists longing for the sandy shores and the Victorian flavor of Galveston Island will soon have the chance to visit the Gulf Coast destination in a whole new dimension.

This May, Galveston.com will become the world’s first Convention & Visitors Bureau website to place a 3-D computer generated small-scale replica inside a virtual world when it debuts 'Galveston Isle' inside the popular online game Second Life. A virtual world in which members create digital personas and exchange virtual currency - or Linden dollars - for digitally rendered goods and services, the Second Life universe is currently inhabited by more than 2.6 million residents worldwide.

Downtown Galveston slowly begins to take shape in Second Life.

Come May, Second Life’s visitors will be able to enter virtual Galveston Island and interact with others as they get a sneak peek at its downtown Strand District, multimedia-rich Visitor Information Center, rental hi-rises and Victorian-inspired homes, live webcams, working trolley, landscaped outdoor spaces, live concerts, and energetic lounge scene.

Visitors can now follow the development progress of building the the 3-D virtual Galveston Island online via a companion weblog at forums.galveston.com. Throughout development the blog will be updated with diary entries from the 3-D developers as they build the virtual destination.

“Second Life Galveston Island is about promoting Galveston Island tourism to a new audience, as well as providing an escape from the ordinary and reinventing everyday experiences,” said Jim Cordell, vice president and chief creative officer of Galveston.com & Company. “Our debut within Second Life will give digital travelers a chance to introduce themselves to the best aspects of Galveston Island, and unwind their virtual selves in our social areas, beaches, and concert venues. They will be able to take guided virtual tours, learn about Galveston history, view Galveston Island tourism videos, provide feedback, and interact with new virtual friends from around the globe.”

Created in 2003 by San Francisco based Linden Lab, Second Life is a virtual online world where trendsetters are flocking to exchange ideas, egos and virtual property using “avatars,” or highly-customized 3D representations of themselves. The act of placing a real-world entity, such as Galveston Island, into the fantasy realm of Second Life has becoming a growing trend. Recently, Circuit City has announced a virtual store; The Sundance Channel will open a virtual screening room; IBM is opening 'virtual islands;' and Major League Baseball created a “Baseball” island which hosted live television coverage of 2006's MLB Home-Run Derby on virtual stadium Jumbotrons while the event was simulated on the virtual field.

Through Second Life, Galveston.com & Company is educating thousands of potential visitors and tourists about Galveston Island. In the same way Galveston.com broke through the clutter of conformity with its first-of-its-kind audio and video podcasts, its proprietary DestinationNext reservation module, tourism-related RSS feeds, continuously-updated AccuWeather, and island-wide webcams, it will raise the bar once again in Second Life, offering rentable penthouses and seaside homes, a full-range of online shopping, energetic social centers and beach volleyball, and more. Quite simply, if one can't visit real life Galveston Island, then Second Life Galveston Island will be the next best thing.

Galveston.com completed a 3-year redesign in March 2006, and features a host of features, interactivity, and functionality that was only imagined when the company first bowed in the fall of 1994.

Rich with interactive polls, a robust message board, audio and video podcasts (the first Convention & Visitors Bureau-related website in the world to offer such), RSS feeds, the Galveston.com NewsWire offering news from sources worldwide, tourism-related member pages for local businesses, continuously-updated AccuWeather, city-wide megapixel webcams,  personalized itinerary builder, “one-click” expandable navigation, and complete interactive reservations for lodging, cruises, cruise parking, and airport transfers, Galveston.com is quite unlike any other destination portal in the United States.

For more information, contact Galveston.com & Company at via phone (409)763-8676 or email at websites@galveston.com.

About Galveston.com &  Company

Galveston.com & Company, Inc. is a destination marketing corporation based in Galveston, Texas. The company specializes in destination portals, as well as online lodging, cruise, parking, and transfer reservations via its proprietary DestinationNext reservation module. Galveston.com is winner of the 2006 Stevie Award for Best Overall Website Design; 2006 Interactive Media Award for Outstanding Achievement in Website Development; two Silver 2006 W3 Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Website Development in both Travel and Tourism; and two Silver 2006 International Davey Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Website Development in both Travel and Tourism.