The images define what is beautiful, what is an attraction, what should be experienced and with whom one should interact. These images often re-present notions of 'really local'.
Tourists can be led to believe that what they are looking at is a timeless culture poised on the edge of change, hence the exhortation in much tourist literature to see it before it is too late, real and authentic is often a kind of 'staged authenticity' which is created and performed by local people in conjunction with the tourism industry