If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video nears novel territory. So what would a 360-degree video say? 

At Visit California, each narrative ends with the same line: If you can dream it, you can do it in California.

As part of its ongoing effort to build an asset library to best serve California's travel and tourism industry, Visit California has been working since winter 2017 to commission and curate 360-degree videos of areas around the state.

Immersive technology has been a growing marketing trend – especially in the tourism world – and to this end, Visit California has deployed 360 content at numerous activations, including media receptions, sales missions, Outlook Forum and IPW. Now, industry partners across the state can leverage these resources for themselves.

The 360 video library is housed in the royalty-free videos section of WebDAM, the platform Visit California uses to surface its digital assets. Since these videos were concepted and created by Visit California and its contractors, they can be used by industry partners for all marketing purposes around the promotion of tourism to the Golden State without any licensing fees.

Currently the library includes videos from the Central Coast, Bay Area, North Coast, Yosemite, Inland Empire and San Diego County. Experiences highlighted include whale watching in Monterey Bay, wine tasting in Santa Barbara, kayaking near Mount Lassen, hot air balloon rides in Temecula and paragliding in San Diego.

Visit California is continuing its work in the coming fiscal year to add even more destinations and experiences to the library, so let us know which standout spots in your area would show exceptionally well for this medium.

If you have questions about how to find or use these assets, contact Visit California Creative Development Manager Robin Nichols.

Following the close of FY17/18, Visit California released EVOLVE: FY17/18 Year In Review, its annual report reflecting on evolved marketing accomplishments and record breaking tourism impacts – a collective industry success.

Check out an executive summary of the publication on the Year In Review webpage and download or request additional copies of the publication, which will be arriving in mailboxes this week.

Within each page of the EVOLVE: FY17/18 Year In Review, industry leaders can explore highlights from California tourism's record year and see how Visit California continues to set the pace for global destination marketing.  

This past fiscal year marked the eighth year of growth for California tourism, pushing economic impact numbers to new heights across the industry. In FY17/18, this industry set new records in visitation, travel spending, jobs and tax revenue. Readers will find industry research, evaluations and regional impacts for all areas of tourism included in the publication.

Each fiscal year brings new challenges to overcome. Summer of 2017 brought devastating fires, mudslides and disasters to the beauty of the Golden State. Through these natural disasters, Visit California found evolved its crisis response and supported community recovery through events such as the "Grateful Table," the "Share the Love" spot launch and the Highway 1 closure and re-opening.

United as an industry, Visit California’s global marketing program is operating at a level that allows California to remain a leader on the global stage. The media landscape has changed dramatically, giving rise to new platforms, influencers and technologies. With this evolution of communication and engagement, Visit California has focused efforts on integrated campaigns to target travelers based on demographic audience characteristics and unique experiences travelers seek in California that incorporate paid, owned, earned and trade activations simultaneously. Read about these integrated campaign successes that build upon the foundational “Dream Big” brand platform to generate more than 7.7 billion paid impressions, $263 million earned media value and hours of consumption time across owned channel content.

Visit the Year in Review webpage to catch up on the latest, and download the full publication for reading on-the-go.