Tourists vs Locals

There was a prank done by Improv Everywhere who painted the above sign on a block in New York proposing to put New Yorkers and tourists in different pedestrian lanes. Of course, it's a prank and it's not real but it's something worth thinking about. Instead of tourists and New Yorkers, I'd propose a fast lane, a slow lane and a carpool lane to sift out the slowbies and the drones of stroller moms, it'd certainly make for better walking experiences.

In the same spirit, someone has figured out a way to utilize pictures on Flickr that are geotagged to compare places frequent by locals to the places frequent by tourists. The blue signifies the spots where the local take pictures, the red signifies tourist paths, yellow line are places where it's indeterminable. If you head to that specific Flickr album where these maps are stored, you'll be able to read the tags on the pictures where people add notes to tell you some specific landmark, I wish Blogspot has that same function sometimes. I also like the red and blue contrast that makes it look a blood circulation system.

Anyway here are the pictures:


Philadelphia - The city is a bit tilted to the right. The tourist area shown on the map is in the awkward shape of 3:50 with the 3 pointing at the Independence Hall area where the Liberty Bell is and the :50 indicating Benjamin Franklin Parkway that lead to the Art Museum. Other than those, South Street, a couple ball fields and cheesesteak places, there's really nothing much here in Philly. I've been scratching my head when a friend from HK wants to visit and came up with nothing.


Hong Kong - Hong Kong is composed by several islands and the Kowloon Peninsula, though you probably can't tell by looking at this picture because people love to take the ferry across and take pictures along the way. Comparing to the Philadelphia map, the Hong Kong map is actually in shrunk way smaller to fit on screen. The standalone red and yellow spot on the far left is Hong Kong Disneyland where I have yet to go.


Paris - The standalone big spot in the south east is Versailles.


New York City - From Central Park, Times Square all the way down Broadway to Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty, it's all popular tourists spots and so is the riverbanks on both side where you can snap amazing pictures of Manhattan.


San Francisco - For some reason the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf stands out as the tourists spot as if locals will not go there and take pictures. Honestly I have not taken much touristy pics in Philly, so I guess I understand, but if Philly looks like San Francisco I might take more pictures.


Washington D.C. - Understandably it's all about the National Hall, all the landmarks and major events are all around it.


Las Vegas - It's all about the strip on this one. Even locals don't seem to take much pictures of anywhere else, maybe there's not much else to see there?


Tokyo - Love to go there but never been, I'm just posting it for the Boyfriend's benefit.

The actual photo album has maps of 81 different places. You might be able to find a city you're familiar with and see for yourself.