The VisitSweden Web site attracts visitors with an interactive map

VisitSweden's official assignment is to market Sweden as a travel destination internationally. VisitSweden hopes that visitsweden.com will inspire different travel experiences and increase travel to Sweden.

By adding an interactive map to the Web site, VisitSweden wants to both attract international visitors, and increase interactivity on the Web site.

The interactive map points out Sweden's leading attractions and experiences and the map itself is an experience that makes you want to visit Sweden. The function shows a "smörgåsbord" of what is available to see and do in different parts of Sweden. The zoom function gives both general and detailed information, which is very important when marketing a country.

The application has been created according to user requirements collected via an online questionnaire on visitsweden.com

The biggest challenge was attracting both users that don't know a lot about the country and users that know the country well. Users can immediately recognize that the map is interactive, and it is also easy to use.

The technical challenge was learning the technology and how to use it properly and certain compromises had to be taken to reach the goal.

The interactive map is based on Google Maps, which has become something of a standard for how an interactive map should look. By building their own add-on to an existing application, VisitSweden can make the most of Google's  continual development. The map fetches everything, from information about coordinates, text and images to speech bubbles, from EPiServer.

"The venture exceeded all our expectations. The map function has quickly become one of the most used functions on the Web site. The media attention that we received through Google Maps Mania - the leading blog about Google Maps mashups - was extra encouraging," says Margareta Björnberg, Senior Webmaster at VisitSweden.