This is Southampton.co.uk this week launched a stunning new virtual tour of the south-coast city and surrounding region.

The Daily Echo's website had previously made use of 360-degree panorama technology on several of its sections and has now exploited it to its full by providing a dedicated, comprehensive virtual tour section.

The city of Southampton lends itself perfectly to such a feature, with extensive waterfront views, attractive parkland, historic buildings and busy shopping centres.

Various locations in and around the city were photographed in 360-degrees. The images were then converted into panoramic views for the Internet and assembled into an informative, lively website that is bound to prove immensely popular with its users.

Content Producer Andrew Brittain, who produced the site, said: "I reckon this will be one of our most popular features, especially with the thousands of visitors we get who have emigrated from Southampton.

"It is so simple, with no special software needed to view the tours and no lengthy waits for images to load, which similar sites often have - and some of the 360-degree views we have on there are amazing".

New panoramas will be added regularly to the site, which is online now at www.thisissouthampton.co.uk/virtualtours - or click on the link from the This is Southampton home-page.