Tourism campaign in Egypt backfires after people tweet the real #ThisIsEgypt

Egypt’s tourism authorities launched a new promotional ad campaign, featuring this whimsical video above that depicts the country’s rich diversity. It ends encouraging viewers to share the hashtag #ThisIsEgypt.

That appeal led to many Egyptian Twitter eagerly sharing their images of the country, at a time when terrorism and extremist violence has threatened to undercut the vital Egyptian tourism industry.

But it also led to a perhaps undesired reaction. Some Twitter users are deploying the hashtag to highlight the country’s grievous human rights recordunder President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who came to power through a coup in summer 2013. Since Sissi’s ascension, thousands of suspected dissidents and activists have been rounded up and detained, while journalists have come under intense scrutiny in a climate of fear and repression.

15 years old student killed by torture in prison…by police #thisIsEgypt https://t.co/2rfcfalSsg

— Ahmed AbdelHamid (@abdelhamid868) December 11, 2015

Amr Nohan, three year sentence for photo of Sisi with mickey mouse ears. #thisisegypt https://t.co/2HZOJKeelG

— Wael Eskandar (@weskandar) December 11, 2015

#thisisegypt a place where you can go to prison for writing a novel #ضد_محاكمة_الخيال

— Shereen (@forsoothsayer) December 11, 2015

#thisisegypt 🙂 #optimism #tourism pic.twitter.com/MLYSkIflpP

— Michael Maurice (@MichaelMauriceA) December 11, 2015

Tourism in the country has suffered a marked blow in the face of a rise in Islamist and other militant violence. The recent crash of a Russian jetliner over the Sinai peninsula, which killed all 224 people on board, is suspected to have been a terrorist attack. Earlier this year, government helicopters mistakenly attacked a group of Mexican tourists eating lunch in sand dunes near the lawless border with Libya, killing 12.

Source: Washington Post