We’re talking mostly about view cards here - if people list card preferences on their profile like Japanese art or any other kind of preferences, art or otherwise, then that’s fine to send them those cards.
What we’re mostly talking about is if I started sending cards from Italy when I’m in Canada for example - most folks aren’t keen on that unless I was travelling there & sent the cards while there.
It’s about tourist-type cards: the London Eye, Empire State Building, etc. Even those might be okay if you mention why you sent it. I send Asian art cards at times, too. Art of Japan was one of my favorite university courses.
Of course, I would not send a postcard with a characteristic picture of something from the receiver’s country (i.e. the Colosseum to an Italian), but I have some cards from places I visited long ago and that I kept with me because I loved them but now that I started postcrossing I have decided to send them to adequate receivers.
Now I might have to send a direct message to one person explaining why they are getting a “foreign” postcard from Spain 
(Oh, and Japanese classic art rules!)
I personally love all cards, and don’t care at all if the person has never been to the place on the card!
As a fan of all things Japanese, for instance, I would love to receive a card featuring anything even vaguely Japanese, and especially Japanese art…
The act of sending a card (and the message) are what this project is about, for me.
I’m sure you will find appreciative recipients for all your art cards 
That’s exactly what it is for me too! Cards are just beautiful and giving the sender the freedom to send whatever they feel that will make you (the sender) happy opens the door to receiving so many cards that you wouldn’t have imagined you’d love.
But I am just glad that the whole ordeal was just about tourist-y cards and not just about any card that does not belong to your place, because as of right now, I have the most random stock one could imagine!
Me too! I have been collecting cards for so long, art cards, tourist cards, vintage cards,
hotel self-promotion cards… 
My stock is also unbelievably random - it makes me so happy when someone particularly loves,
say, dinosaur cards from museums, and I actually have one to send them!
Postcrossing really is a testament to
Life’s Rich Tapestry.
I LOVE how you worded it!!! Wouldn’t have said it better myself! 
If someone prefers a picture from where I am from, I send them a card showing something in the Netherlands. I don’t have many cards from my own city, so it will often be one of the bigger cities like Amsterdam.
If it doesn’t matter, I also can send them cards from other places like Spain, Bonaire or Germany. Depending on how fitting the card is. For example I have flamenco cards from Spain, so those I can send to someone who loves dancing. Bonaire for people who like flamingo or tropical fish. Things like that.
Maybe this fits this topic:
I’m kind of burnt out when it comes to sending tourist cards. There’s not much variety in single view cards of my region, and I feel like I end up writing the same thing about my town. Unfortunately I don’t travel much for different reasons, so I have barely any other tourist cards.
I was thinking about buying some cards online with photos of famous places of my country, but idk, in my head it feels like cheating to me if I’ve never been there…? I know the Postcrossing police won’t come for me if I end up doing that but still. Maybe I’ll go for a middle ground and buy cards of some places I’ve been to as a child a long time ago?
What’s your approach to tourist cards?
I have bought a lot of tourist postcards of places around Maine. Some postcards are places I haven’t visited yet. If I write about what’s on the postcard, then I will say that I haven’t visited the place yet but I hope to do so in the future. I think it’s fine to send postcards even if you haven’t visited the place. You could just write a little bit about what the place on the postcard is known for.
I have a whole stash of postcards from many countries which I have not visited. I try to make sure that the person will not object to the card. I am also busy scanning my stash of cards (1600 and counting 
) and was thinking that I might open a swap thread to repatriate some of these cards.
I also pick up cards from all over Switzerland and sometimes they inspire me to visit the place so that I can post from the correct location and discover new areas.
Call museums in your area, they can put together a pack of assorted cards and send them to you. These might be castles, folk art, historical objects etc.
Well said and I couldn’t agree more.
s