Pictures of Romania's tourist sights in 39 new cities and selected rural beauty spots will become available on Google Maps via the Street view function. The new Google Romania project involved driving and biking some 40,000 kilometers around the country to take pictures of Romania's beauties. The Retezat National Park, the Sighisoara historic center, the wooden churches in Maramures and the Moldova monasteries, all will be found on Google Street View.

The project will expand the Street View coverage in Romania by 39 cities, including Craiova, Focşani, Baia Mare, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Alba Iulia, Galaţi, Deva, Hunedoara, Sfântu Gheorghe, Zalău.

Google will collect images using one of its Street View cars equipped with a camera and with a Google trike, a three-wheeled vehicle that also includes a camera that can access pedestrian areas and public squares.

The Street View service was launched in Romania in 2010, initially covering the largest Romanian cities, such as Arad, Oradea, Braşov, Timişoara, Cluj, Sibiu, Constanţa and of course Bucharest, the resorts in Valea Prahovei and on the seaside, some 6,000 km in total.

Including sights images on Street view seems to boost tourist traffic: in 2010, the ancient Roman city Pompeii was included on Street View and the number of tourists went up by a quarter.

Google has an office in Bucharest, which was opened in 2010 and is led by Dan Bulucea.

Google Street View can be accessed here.

editor@romania-insider.com

 (photo source: Google Street View screen capture, in picture, the Peles Castle in Sinaia)