Google Trekker to showcase El Paso attractions

Visit El Paso -the department in charge of marketing El Paso, and Google announced a partnership that helps anyone in the world tour parts of the city.

It’s called Google Trekker, a high-tech way for cities and states to show off their best outdoor features.

El Paso was one of three cities selected to take part in the program.

If you’ve used Google Maps then you’re just about familiar with the idea.

You can use Google Maps to find a location, see a street view and even see the building or place you want to visit.

Google Trekker takes it one step further, it gives you a look into a location

“El Paso was one of three selected cities along with Austin and Houston,” Bryan Crowe said.

Crowe is CEO of Destination El Paso.

Crowe tells ABC-7 the program has been in the works for more than a year.

So why El Paso?

“We have fantastic historic assets here. We have a number of different beautiful sites and we submitted a number of different options,” Crowe said.

The maps are created with the Google Trekker. A 40-pound backpack with a camera that gives a 360-degree view.

Carrying those backpacks; El Pasoans.

Trekkers walked through different attractions giving people a close-up view.

Visit El Paso picked out 12 different attractions throughout the city. The El Paso Municipal Rose Garden was one of them but not all locations were a walk in the park for trekkers.

“It was very challenging,” Micheal Fernandez said.

Fernandez was one of those trekkers.

He was assigned the task of carrying the trekker through Mckelligon Canyon

“There was sometimes where there wasn’t some steps and I kind of had to inch my way. There was a couple times I was on my hands and knees in certain areas,” Fernandez said.

Because of their hard work people can now get an up close look at the Sun Bowl,
the Wyler Tram Way, Ascarate Lake and the Franklin Mountains among other spots around the city.

“There’s people from all over the world who are interested in some of the assets we have. If you type in the name of any one of these places now you have access to places you wouldn’t be able to see before,” Crowe said.

Officials at Visit El Paso tell ABC-7 three million people visit El Paso every year
and say that has a $1.7 billion dollar impact and creates 13,000 jobs.