With summer vacation around the corner, expect social media to be flooded with pictures of smiling individuals at various tourist hot spots. But what if the city you go to is so smog filled that it’s hard to take a good picture?
Hong Kong has figured out an easy solution. Erect a clear sky backdrop of the city for visitors to take memorable pictures. Yipes.
Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor is major sightseeing spot for vacationers – famous for its spectacular view of the Hong Kong skyline. In recent years however, that beautiful view has become clouded over by a dense layer of smog covering the city. The pollution has become so terrible that there is even a real-time HK air quality index for people to reference.
Nevertheless, in order to satisfy the needs of visitors in the area looking to take memorial pictures, Hong Kong has set up a smog free backdrop of the city (shhhh…don’t tell). Never mind trying to solve the hazardous pollution shrouding over the city and the many tourists that end up sick each year from breathing in the smog. Responsible marketing be damned, so long as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are still being decorated with pictures of beautiful smog free Hong Kong, their tourism industry holds strong.
Just try not to breathe in too deeply if you go there.
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Former Outsource Marketing intern Bonnie Kwok (@kw_bonnie) originally drafted this article. Thanks, Bonnie!
