Savannah to launch virtual tour of Main Street

SAVANNAH, Tenn. — Savannah’s Main Street soon may be worth a thousand words as the city’s stores are being photographed as part of its most recent push for tourism.

“We look up everything on our mobile devices, on our tablets right now, and we want to know what we’re getting into before we’re there. This is a perfect opportunity to provide that access,” Seth Sumner, city manager of Savannah, said.

City leaders are partnering with Shop Main Streets, a company whose goal is to help small businesses by taking a 360-degree visual of every store that wants to be a part of the program.

“It connects them with all the other shops in their town, like Savannah, and with the other Main Streets partnering with us,” Shop Main Streets creator Bob Hilburn said.

Officials said they’ve had 15 stores sign up to be a part of this project, both to attract tourists from outside the city and those who already live there.

“We have more than 300,000 visitors each year who come into Savannah, and so we want to make sure those folks can find us and can find our retail and our businesses so they can shop and dine with us,” Sumner said.

Along his trail of Main Streets, Bob Hilburn said once vacant buildings are now growing businesses, and he hopes this service will help keep these businesses open.

Savannah leaders expect the virtual reality tour to be up within the next couple of weeks. To check out other Main Streets and to see when Savannah is live, visit www.ShopMainStreets.com.