Photo of the day No.40 - Fake Hong Kong Tourism Image

13 May

Fake images now being used by online Travel Publications

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Photo of the day No.40 - Fake Hong Kong Tourism Image

Fake images now being used by online Travel Publications

A totally fake image purportedly taken in Hong Kong

click on the image to enlarge

AI is going to change everything and NOT in a good way

I do a lot of research when it comes to Travel and Tourism and every day I get at least 50 emails (yes 50) from Travel Companies I subscribe to in other words I get their newsletters and daily digests and such, it keeps me up to date on Travel and Tourism trends around the world.

Some of the organisations I subscribe to actually send me 2 sometimes 3 emails a day, they are respected online travel publications and their newsletters and such are full of tourism articles from around the world and they are image heavy and I am pretty sure they can influence peoples holiday planning.

I can tell you there are many, many articles about Hong Kong because it is a favourite tourist spot for many people nd every now and then a fake image pops up but nothing like this one.

I often come across Travel Agencies in Hong Kong using fake images to promote tours, I can spot them instantly courtesy of the fact that I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years and I have been a Private Tour Guide since 2010, I know my city.

The image above got my attention immediately, I will not name the online travel publication but it is one of the most respected names in the Travel and Tourism world and I was simply shocked by the image.

It is a computer generated AI image and it is a FAKE

A lot of the rolling hills and buildings in the image background are real, it is a view of Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbour from Kowloon.
the harbour is real
the tall building in the background is totally FAKE, it DOES not exist, Hong Kong does not have that many tall skyscrapers (and we have a couple of really big ones) and I have no idea where it is located, at a guess probable some city in Mainland China
the buildings and scene in the foreground with the cool and happy tourists do NOT exist it is a FAKE scene

So there you go, a travel article from a respected publisher is resorting to AI to generate awesome images that show a destination in the best and coolest possible way.

It is wrong.

In the social media world that exists today posting selfies of photogenic spots in cities is an art form of sorts, I get many potential guests who send me images of places they would like to see and visit, images are a very powerful tool but it is deceitful to use an AI fake image, one should only post real images in real locations.

I fear this is going to be a trend with online Travel publications and yes I understand that a certain amount of image manipulation goes on, and filters are used to show the image in the best possible light but it is a totally different matter when you use fake buildings and scenes to promote a city because I know from personal experience that people have a hard time believing they are viewing a fake image and the disappointment is palpable when they find out it is a figment of a Chatbots imagination.

I just hope that this is not the future of promoting a Travel and Tourism.