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Now, iconic Indian tourist hotspots available in Google 360 Virtual Reality - Watch

The hope is that the virtual tours could get more people to visit the real thing.

Now, iconic Indian tourist hotspots available in Google 360 Virtual Reality - Watch Screengrab from the VR tour of Hampi.

The Union Tourism Ministry has launched a 360° Virtual Reality (VR) experience video on Incredible India, in collaboration with Google. The service will allow you to visit some iconic Indian tourism hotspots using VR. However, the government expects that the VR visits will inspire more people to visit the real thing.

The video that was released on Thursday seems to be a teaser of the sort of experience you could have when more and more locations are added to the VR portfolio.

The video gives a glimpse of what is to come. You could just click-and-drag for a different view of the location. On your mobile, all you would need to do is move it around like you were playing Temple Run. You would just have to turn your neck if you were wearing a VR device.

Try out the Google 360 Virtual Reality tour of some iconic places:

"India is an iconic destination that offers unique experiences of climate, geography, culture, art, literature, and food," said Tourism Minister of State KJ Alphons at the launch of the video.

He added that the idea behind the collaboration with Google was to give virtual visitors the opportunity to immerse in India's rich heritage by offering them immersive content in a never-before-seen manner.

Alphons also said such virtual reality experiences, when made available either free or at a low cost, might enable an increase in the tourist footfall at India's many iconic monuments and tourist destinations. A special focus would be provided to museums, he said.

The video released on Thursday takes the viewer through a virtual tour with glimpses of Hampi, Goa, Delhi and Amritsar. More videos would be made available at https://g.co/incredibleindia