STUNNING new maps have revealed the favourite spots where locals and tourists take photographs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
California-based artist Eric Fischer has produced a series of maps which record where photographs are taken using a process called “geotagging”.
By using data such as where people Tweet and post photos, the research found that although there are many areas where locals and tourists mingle, there were secret highlights in cities that travellers seldom visited.
Red markings on the map indicate locations popular with tourists, blue for the people who live there and yellow signifies uncertainty.
The Edinburgh map shows a large disparity between tourist and local movements. Tourists tend to stay around Princes Street and the popular Royal Mile, where the well-photographed Edinburgh Castle, Scott Monument and St Giles’ Cathedral are situated.
On the other hand, locals spread out to areas such as Leith, Morningside and Murrayfield and covered a much larger area of the city.
The Glasgow map also shows that tourists tend to favour the high-street and town centre, whereas locals flock to the West End and areas further out of the city.
In London, it is clear to see which areas attract the most tourists posting about their experiences on social media. Westminster, the City of London and the Southbank are particularly popular, while locals spend more time further north in the capital.
Unsurprisingly, tourism in Paris focuses around the River Seine, with a heat spot further north in the Montmartre district, home to the Sacré-Coeur, and another just to the west of the city where the Place of Versailles is located
In New York, tourists dominate the financial district, Midtown and Central Park, while posts by locals are more evenly spread across the island and also out into Brooklyn and Queens.
Eric said: “I’m interested in making maps of geotagged photos in general as a way of understanding what places in cities people find the most interesting and how they travel between those places.
“This particular series I made after receiving comments on an earlier set, the Geotaggers’ World Atlas, asking whether the series was just maps of tourist attractions.
“This series was an experiment to find out whether that was actually true, and I discovered that in most cities there are many places that are popular with local people, but where tourists rarely go.
“It’s reasonable to decide that if someone took pictures in one city over the course of more than a month, they probably live in that city.
“It isn’t an on-going project, although at some point it might be interesting to go back and do it again to see what has changed.”
