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Good morning Mike,
Here’s a quick update regarding the migration from the current Wild Coast Virtual Tourism Platform to the new platform. I have also included the list below of hotel URL’s on the current Wild Coast Virtual Tourism Platform that are going to change as a result of the move.
When we started out on this journey in 2020. I was referred to 5D Global, the first round to create Virtual Tours for the hotels went reasonably well. However, as things progressed, I found it increasingly difficult and expensive to continue with 5D Global as our supplier. “Call out’s” to places like Kob Inn etc to sort out loose ends became an expensive exercise.
Also, in terms of our plan to create a comprehensive, inclusive, Wild Coast Virtual Tourism Platform that reflected aspects like the natural attractions, hiking trails, homestays, guides etc. would end up costing us an arm and a leg. For example, within a year of starting, we had a 300% increase to capture and create virtual tours. Also, hosting was being calculated at a minimum of R20 per month per point of interest like a waterfall. At the current “discounted” hosting rate it would cost us R5,450 per month to host 500 attractions at R20 each and 50 Wild Coast hotels at R69 /hotel - and that excludes any mapping of hiking trails, homestays etc. See attached invoice
In September 2021 I made the call to move the hosting of the Wild Coast Virtual Tourism Platform to our own servers. Then 5D informed me that they would not be releasing the coding for the current platform because we had only paid for the Virtual Tours and not the coding of the platform!
The way forward:
1. I have teamed up with Telmo of VR Capture and Simon of Drone Air and together we are busy re-creating the entire Wild Coast platform and moving the hosting onto a server where we have full control. We are doing the design, development and creation of the new platform at our own expense. In the interim I have been covering the 5D Global hosting fees as per their monthly invoice. Wild Coast Holiday Association will be notified once the basic platform is up for you to see, we will take it from there.
2. I have also purchased a state of the art 360° Degree Google Maps Street View camera so that I can personally continue with the capturing of the natural attractions, hiking trails, village homestays etc. My camera arrived from China last week, it’s a significant personal investment but it will more than justify itself in terms of the resulting savings when it comes to ongoing capturing. I have made a commitment to see this project through, I head back to resume capturing again in mid-September. MORE INFO
There are many moving parts and as a “one-man-band” with no funding it is challenge for me to keep things moving forward as I would like. To keep you updated I will continue posting to social media when there is progress, and e-mail you again when there are significant developments.
Any assistance Wild Coast Holiday Association can provide me in these efforts will assist me tremendously - please invite the tourism related companies you know to contact me so that I can help get them mapped on Google Maps. See additional details below of the three legs of this project.
Feel free to contact me at any time should you require additional information.
Warm regards
Mike
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