#I am against tourism that is amoral and serves to normalize brutal dictatorships

[damascusgirl]

I apologize for the long ramble in this post, but these are thoughts that I have been trying to express for a while.

I’ve always had a distaste for the travel vloggers (who are usually American) visiting Syria in recent years. These creators often claimed their content was meant to showcase Syria’s beautiful culture and highlight its “recovery from the war.” However, this becomes disingenuous when they completely avoided addressing the war or the oppression Syrians faced—something they couldn’t openly discuss in Syria without jeopardizing their own safety. Many of them filmed just miles away from the destruction caused by the Assad regime or even near torture prisons where the detainees were held. Yet they used vague, whitewashed language to describe the conflict’s devastating toll. Ultimately, their content served to normalize the criminal Assad regime and erase its crimes from public consciousness, painting an inaccurate image of Syria.

For years, countless Syrians couldn’t return to their homeland or reunite with their families. Meanwhile, these vloggers freely visited and filmed in Syria’s streets. When you haven’t been able to return home for over a decade, and wasn’t sure if you ever will return, watching the videos felt like rubbing salt in an open wound. I can’t fully explain the weight of that feeling. What’s more, it often seemed to me like they viewed themselves as “virtuous” for visiting a poor, war-torn country and showcasing its culture, and praising the kindness of its people—as if that justified their tourism.