Research on visualization of main tourist areas in Hubei province based on Google Earth

The travel craze in China has become one of the largest sources of expenditure increases. However, the limited patterns of information demonstration hindered the availability of necessary information to the public as well as the decision makers. Google Earth provides a useful platform for integrating environmental information with geospatial data from different sources. Using KML files, various environmental data may be viewed in Google Earth. In this paper, Google Earth is used as basic GIS platform. Placemarks of main tourist areas of Hubei Province are made and loaded by KML. The most up-to-date information is released using text, picture and video in HTML files. This approach transformed the traditional two-dimension travel information system into multi-dimensional information platform, facilitating data updating and information sharing over the Internet. It would also help decision making of the government and promote information availability to the public.