1. An apparatus for creating, managing and publishing interactive virtual tours, the apparatus comprising: a panorama data acquisition unit implementing means of capturing panoramic data and optionally preparing said panoramic data for further processing; a transform engine responsive to said panoramic data and implementing means of correcting distortions in said panoramic data and/or performing automatic, manual or interactive calibration of said panoramic data and/or transforming said panoramic data into a desired format or set of formats when necessary, wherein said distortion correction could optionally be accomplished through steps of: a) loading data including reference data that could be used to derive panoramic imaging system distortion profiles; b) specifying a linear or other predetermined distortion function or set of distortion functions and optionally displaying representations of said distortion function or set of distortion functions; c) using distortion function or set of distortion functions to build a distortion profile for the panoramic imaging system that was used to acquire the reference data; d) performing transformation on panoramic data using distortion profile specified in c) and optionally displaying results of said transformation; e) determining whether distortion is satisfactorily corrected; f) continuing with steps g) and h) if distortion is deemed not to have been satisfactorily corrected and continuing with step i) if distortion is deemed to have been satisfactorily corrected; g) automatically or interactively modifying the distortion function or set of distortion functions using feedback from optionally displayed distortion function representation or transformation results obtained in step d) or by using data loaded in step a); h) repeating steps c) to g) until distortion is judged to have been satisfactorily corrected; i) storing distortion profile obtained in step c) for use in performing transformations on panoramic data acquired using the panoramic imaging system for which data was loaded in step a); an optional package generator adapted to generate virtual tour packages containing said panoramic data, commands and/or optional virtual tour data; a viewing engine responsive to said panoramic data and/or virtual tour packages and implementing means for perspective correction, and user interaction with, said panoramic data and/or optional virtual tour data when necessary; an optional control engine adapted to facilitate a higher level of interaction with said panoramic data and/or optional virtual tour data, wherein said control engine is optionally connected operatively to and communicates bi-directionally with said viewing engine, renders representative information about all or parts of said virtual tour, permits a particular portion to be selected from said virtual tour and optionally sends signals to said viewing engine that cause said viewing engine to permit the interactive navigation of said selected portion of said virtual tour, wherein said control engine also indicates or causes to be indicated what portion of said virtual tour is currently selected and what sub-part of said selected portion of said virtual tour is currently rendered, wherein said control engine is responsive to user input and/or commands from said viewing engine and is in turn capable of modifying said representative information about all or parts of said virtual tour in response to said user input and/or said commands from said viewing engine and is further optionally capable of communicating information indicative of such externally induced modifications to said user and/or said viewing engine; a display means for rendering output of said viewing engine, control engine, package generator, transform engine, and/or panoramic data acquisition unit.