Taking a set of travel photos has become an important stop on the itinerary for many a self-respecting Chinese tourist. But concern is rising over the industry that has sprung up to satisfy demand for it being virtually scant of regulation.
You know what they look like. Female almost invariably, young, dressed to the hilt and posing outside a scenic spot, while photographers armed with enormous DSLRs snap away, backed by their makeup and lighting team.
This type of role-playing tourist photography in scenic areas is high in efficiency and low in cost. For the customers, after posting their beautiful set of snaps on social media, they can easily receive the attention and likes that are missing from their daily lives.
It has become a way for young people to step out of reality and purchase happiness.
But the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission wants to make the public more aware of the pitfalls represented by this nascent industry, as The Paper reported on 7 June.
A case in point emerged last month, when a girl (pictured) went home to look through the photos she had taken on her visit to a tourist attraction. There on her folk costume, she saw a cockroach crawling across her neck.
She’d bought her package of photos from a small storefront, where typical prices vary from ¥99 to ¥399 for makeup and hair styling alone. Add in the photography and other services, it becomes easy to part with up to a thousand renminbi.
Price is only part of the worry, however. These types of stores often use hair glue to stick decorative sequins on their customers, hardly something suitable for facial skin.
And as the girl with the cockroach found out, hygiene is an issue, with many of the clothes used rarely washed.
But what has really got the Consumer Protection Commission’s goat is the tourists who wear folk costumes and adorn themselves with unsuitable religious icons.
The Commission believes that the original intention of scenic spot photography is to allow tourists to immerse themselves in local culture. Done well, these exquisite photos integrate landscape and folk customs, becoming local-tourism promotional materials.
The worry is made clear by an attitude that has become prevalent in the industry; “no matter the ethnic group, just as long as it is a princess”.
That may not seem like a big deal to many, but this correspondent is from Scotland, where the idea of an Englishman wearing a kilt is an abhorrence.
Lastly, there is the very real threat of long-term damage to a given locale’s standing in the minds of the general public.
Sadly, there is no shortage of photo suppliers all too aware that tourists hang around only very briefly. Should they be dissatisfied with the result, the possibility to retake their photos is slim to non existent.
That’s the driver behind the concept of “one-off business”, in which prices are often arbitrarily increased and tourists cajoled into expensive add ons, rarely receiving value for money. In the long run, it will not only destroy the provider and possibly the scenic spot, but also the reputation of a city.
After all, the last thing we need is for a scenic princess to be saying, “I went to Nanjing and got ripped off”.
