As Johnny Rotten said, "Cheap holiday in other peoples' misery"

[mr blur]

Tourists enjoying a beer on the beach:

http://webmaster.zattevrienden.be/doorgaan.htm

[CottonBear]

1. Maybe speedo man should lay off the beer. n/t

[beam me up scottie]

2. I know they want tourists to come back because they bring

money but, HOW CAN THEY?
How can anybody tune out that kind of misery?
You can't tell me they can't smell death in the air.

[MadHound]

3. Well, while that might seem exceedingly crass, there is another POV

These are tourists, and all of those countries hit by the tsunami are heavily dependent on tourist dollars. While in most tourist areas hit by a natural disaster it would take months and years before tourists reappeared, it is good to see the tourists back after such a short time. It brings in much needed money, and has a snowballing effect. These tourists will tell their friends what a good time they had, that X country is already back open for business, etc. Such word of mouth will bring in even more tourists, with even more money. With these countries having major industries such as fishing wiped out, it is good to see that they still have one viable industry making money.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Exactly. Despite the bad appearance, they're doing the right thing

Some of these places have no income BUT tourism. Some tourists are coming back for this reason alone. As long as they're not interfering with the reconstruction or using valuable needed resources, I don't see a problem

[Stephanie]

4. I don't think those are real

I hope a Photoshop expert will take a look at these. They don't look real to me but I couldn't explain why. I am hoping they are not real.

[superconnected]

5. oh look the CEOs of Haliburton.

[Beware the Beast Man]

6. These are obviously photoshopped.

A number of the pics look superimposed.

[prayin4rain]

7. Oh stop, Those can't possibly be real.

Not a very good joke.

[flobee1kenobi]

8. how sad

I at least hope they are being double or triple charged. I can't fathom the idea of just sitting there tanning while everyone around you tries to rebuild a city.

Even though they don't deserve it, I feel guilty on their behalf.

[TR Fan]

13. If they are real photographs...

they are probably getting deals quite the opposite of being "double or triple charged." Given a local economy completely dependent upon tourism and given a highly competitive travel and leisure market, prices in the area have almost certainly been dramatically discounted.

[Thurston Howell IV]

9. Any evidence these are actually fakes much appreciated

Certainly the pictures shock one's sensibilities, and one can hope they aren't real.

I'm not an expert on photography by any means, but a quick look at the pictures didn't reveal any obvious flaws. The shadows seem correct, and backgrounds that appear in parts of the images that would have been superimposed look consistent.

Anybody got specific flaws they can identify?

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. I'm no expert, but they just LOOK fake.

Reminds me of that WTC hoax pic of the kid who allegedly had his photo taken as a plane was ready to crash into the tower.

[Thurston Howell IV]

16. At least that one was funny

I thought about that pic as well. The interesting thing here is that if they are fakes, someone went through the effort of doing 6 of them. Also, different views of the same scene in pics 4 and 5. The background and foregrounds of the 2 pictures are rescaled appropriately. A lot of extra work just to get across essentially one idea -- ie, creating 2 versions of one scene.

That seems to argue against them being fake, but who knows? Not me.

I think they might look fake because they are so frickin' outrageous in conception.

I don't see any obvious inconsistencies. But I'm not an expert.

[PA Democrat]

11. I did see actual footage on TV news (I believe it was on Countdown)

of tourists returning to the beaches where the tsunami had struck and where people had died.

While, it is true that the country needs the tourism dollars, I don't think I could enjoy a vacation at the site of such horrendous and ongoing tragedy.

[beam me up scottie]

12. Yes. I saw footage last weekend of tourists returning.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Crisis? What crisis?

A recreation of the Supertramp album cover.