Skift Take
Don't pooh pooh them off, whole economies have been built on them; cliches drive the travel economy ever since we started making travel brochures. They are what drive people to book these trips, and do what everyone else has done before them.
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- Walking down Abbey Road. Every Beatles fan ever.
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- Holding up Leaning Tower of Pisa, so original.
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- Sunrise at Angkor Wat, among the crushing crowds, everyone trying to cut off humans in the photo.
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- The Blue Lagoon Silica Mud Mask in Iceland, a relative newcomer on the cliched tourists photo circuit.
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- What else, kissing the Sphinx, unlikely happening in beleaguered Cairo these days.
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- Christ the Redeemer Complex, where else, in Rio.
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- Hong Kong, Bruce Lee Kung Fu obligatory pic. Of course.
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- Bangkok Dance, because the guide asked them to.
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- Pinching the Taj, never ever has it been done before.
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- Kissing in Times Square, and framing it for perpetuity.
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- The Kjerag Rock in Norway, nevermind there is a long line to take the exact photo, just out of sight of this pic.
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- Tourists doing silly things around Eiffel Tower, since forever.
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- Rocky! Rocky! Rocky! Jumping! Jumping! Jumping! Every tourist cliche fits in here.
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- Clearly, no one ever thought of touching the Wall Street Bull there.
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- When in Rome, make sure fountains come out of body parts. It is a requirement.
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- Thai Ronald McDonald is tempting us, so why not??
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- Who says pay phones are obsolete? They have a long life as a tourist prop in London.
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- Do I have to tell you to Walk Like An Egyptian? Really?
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- Salt Flat minis. Salar de Uyuni in Boliiva, or any other giant slat flat on earth.
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- More on people doing silly things with historical monuments. Washington Monument, to be exact.
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- Wearing the Statue of Liberty Hat, while going to Statue of Liberty in NYC. It helps.
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- Groan. Snake charmers in India, usually only surface when tourists are around.
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It is a Sunday in the dead of August, and time to take out a well-worn cliche: the most cliched tourist photos list. Much as we love to mock these, given a chance we would be doing at least some of these were we in the same spots.
As for the business of travel, cliches are big business, as any big tourist hub city will tell you. Yes, the travel consumer of 21st century is looking for deeper and more authentic experiences, but the tourism economy is still driven by the well-worn tourist circuit in any destination.
As the newly emerging Asian and Latin American tourists are traveling in increasing numbers around the globe, these cliches are being renewed all over again, and will continue for years to come.
Any ones we missed in the gallery above?
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Tags: photography
Photo credit: The bull on New York City's Wall Street. Jose / Flickr