I started as a local guide because google map gave me a great experience in my first self guided visit to Mexico in 2016. It was all that I relied upon from accommodations, to transportation, to diners, and service hours etc. I never thought by simply giving back (posting a photo) to the map of a restaurant in a foreign country to me would create thousands of views months later. I was very surprised and couldn’t believe it.
After joining the program and contributing more photos, initially just for fun or “checking in”, later made me realize many of my photos were the main photo of the location, be it a restaurant or some cute characters along a shopping lane that I casually snapped. It really made me felt I was amazing and very proud. It’s also one motivation that makes me want to contribute more and be heard.
Never on Earth did I realize just a simple photo of a cake from a bakery shop would end up having over 200,000 views!!! For me this translates to helping people understand more about just a simple franchise bakery shop around town over 200,000 times! While my 562 photos since 2016 Oct until 2020 end Mar accumulated over 2.9 million views!!!
It makes me feel I’m serving and contributing to the global community with simple efforts and also as if I’m leaving my footprints on the planet for others to follow and explore the world. It’s like we can travel the world and learning about the beautiful exotic places of our dreams just on our mobiles.
I also hope that with myself being the local guide in HK now, more people can understand about local guides and act together.