From print to prompt: Examining orientalism in travel, tourism, and transport advertising from the 20th century to the age of generative AI

Orientalism has long served as a critical lens to examine Western representations of the East. While scholars have applied this concept to diverse communication and knowledge products, few explore how Orientalist imagery associated with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) manifests in advertising. In particular, few examine how such imagery intersects with generative AI (GenAI). This study addresses this gap through a semiotic analysis of 11 Western travel and tourism print advertisements featuring MENA cultural themes, published across the 20 th and 21 st centuries. The analysis reveals that the MENA region is represented through a recurring set of iconographies and signifiers that exaggerate the temporal and spatial differences between the Western consumer and the region, increasing the sense of exoticism. The print ads were then compared with AI-generated ads. The findings show that MENA-related Orientalist imageries and tropes existed in historic ads and continue to exist today, with GenAI reproducing them.