They have often been heard saying in their vlogs that Pakistan is an ‘awesome’ and ‘safe’ country for tourists, but locals believe that they are ‘not painting the true picture of Pakistan’ and that such coverage was ‘irresponsible’.
‘Pakistan, it was the trip of a lifetime’, food and travel YouTuber Mark Wiens told his four million subscribers. Polish blogger Eva zu Beck informed her followers it could ‘become the number one tourist destination in the world’.
But locals beg to differ.
“It kinds of makes me angry to have white people represent us. We are not completely done with our post-colonial hangover,” an attendee at the Tourism Summit 2019 told Dawn Images.
Zaman said that all of foreign influencers enjoy protocols that local tourists do not. “All of these travellers are also travelling with crews and are protected by more powerful people,” she said.
Earlier this week, foreign vlogger Alex Reynolds said she was censored at tourism summit because her speech was deemed critical.
She said that Pakistan is a ‘really cool country and has a lot of potential for Tourism’, but the PTS 2019 administration only wanted to know how ‘awesome’ Pakistan was and were not willing to take a deeper look into the existing problems.
After being silenced during the summit, she took to social media to address her concerns.