Photo used to advertise Scottish Highlands travel removed after it appears to show bus in China

The Scottish government has withdrawn an advert promoting its Highland bus journey campaign after it was revealed the image was actually of a nature reserve in China.

Images of the pilot campaign advertising cheap bus travel across the Scottish Highlands and Islands went viral on social media, with eagle-eyed users spotting features such as greenway barriers not available in Scotland.

People suggested the images appeared to be from a similar mountainous region in the Changbaishan National Nature Reserve, thousands of kilometers away along the border between China and South Korea.

Transport Scotland confirmed that the campaign contained incorrect images provided by an external marketing agency, which were subsequently removed from all communications.

Images introducing a £2 bus fare cap across the Highlands and islands from March 23 have been published on social media and transport sites including Stagecoach and Citylink. They have since been removed.

But Highland Tourism, a community group that aims to use tourism for social good, said it was “shameless” to blame a marketing agency and “questions need to be asked”.

“It’s shameless to blame a marketing agency,” Willie Cameron, director of Highland Tourism, told BBC Scotland.

“The responsibility lies with the person who sends the brief when the campaign is ready to be published and signed.

“Why didn’t anyone from Transport Scotland’s marketing team ask where the photo was taken?”

He added: “It should never have been signed. The truth is we have incredible photographers and professionals working in the Scottish Highlands and we could have delivered the right campaign with the right images.

“They should keep this study local, and questions need to be asked about how this was approved.”

A spokesman for Transport Scotland told the BBC it had made it “clear” that the images it was promoting had to be accurate, including accurately reflecting the local area it was promoting and the type of vehicle that would be used.

“A false image was provided by the marketing agency,” he said.

“The image has been removed from partners’ communications packages and will be removed from all ongoing deployments.”