Enhancing Remote Tourism: Mt. Fuji Come Rain Or Shine
If you are touring Japan and want to take a group picture of you and your entourage with a background view of Mt. Fuji, it no longer matters if the weather that day is lousy. From the October 30 2024 Mainaichi Japan, this about a new service established at the Ohbuchi Sasaba tea field in the city of Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture (the picture is from the article):
Visitors can take pictures by scanning a QR code with a smartphone beside a small platform newly set up by the city. The camera capturing Mount Fuji is set 5 meters above the ground, allowing users to compose their shots as if overlooking the area. Even when the mountain is hidden by clouds, the photo is automatically combined with an image taken beforehand to make the weather appear clear.
I’ll leave the philosophical arguments to others about the “honesty” of this. But it might offer a suggested approach to those tourism destinations responding negatively (and sometimes violently) to being “overwhelmed” with bothersome money-spending tourists.
Of course, the success of such ventures will be short lived given the ease with which background-faking apps can be (and are probably being) created. The trick will be to convince people that such “fake reality” posts have a certain cachet because they might offer some evidence to prove you were there — even if the weather was lousy!
Copyright (c) 2024 by Dennis D. McDonald
