American Globe Trotter Blogs About Egypt and Sets Internet on Fire
Travel blogger Alyssa Ramos publishes an op-ed titled 'I Traveled to Egypt, and Yes It Was Safe' and dismantles all the "fear mongering" and "false reporting" that has driven tourists away from Om El Donia.
Can a Los Angeles-based blonde global trotter be Egypt’s tourism ambassador? The answer is YES!
Alyssa Ramos, a travel-blogger whose adventures have taken her to 44 countries around the world, wrote an op-ed, titled I Traveled Solo to Egypt, and Yes It Was Safe, in which she raves about Om El Donia and dismantles the misconceptions perpetuated by the media that the country is unsafe to visit.
You’d think she would use emotionally-charged rhetoric to get her point across, but Ramos shut down the argument that Egypt is some kind of a basket case where looters and rapists roam the streets free with compelling reasoning.
“News reporters for one, had never reported their negative findings about Egypt FROM Egypt, they reported what they were told to say from a box in the U.S. That my friends, is what I like to call false advertisement. Or fear mongering. Or in simple terms; bullshit,” she writes.
Another compelling argument Ramos made was the importance of tourism to Egypt’s economy, writing: “Egypt’s third most important source of income, is tourism. They not only want you there, but they need you there. That’s part of the reason why it’s so safe to travel there right now. Not only do the people respect the sh*t out of tourists and travelers, but the government takes extreme measures to make them feel safe as well. If you think about it, without tourism, the entire country suffers. And if that country suffers, guess who’s never going to see the awesome Great Pyramids, Sphinx, or Egyptian Tombs? You.”
Ramos also noticed Egypt’s biggest asset, which often goes unnoticed by many: Its people.
“I found one thing in common with everyone; the look in their eyes when I said I was from the U.S. It was a look of both bewilderment, gratitude, and hope. It took some of them a few seconds to put the thought together, but most automatically blurted out, ‘You are welcome!’ As if they were trying to convince me more than I already was that I was welcome in their country. I also was shocked at how many of the locals told me about how sad they were that Americans no longer came to visit Egypt, because the media portrayed such a negative image. All I could say in response to that was, ‘I know, that’s why I’m here.’”
Ramos also points out that the influx of American tourists to Egypt has decreased drastically since the onset of the political unrest in 2011, which led to the country’s negative portrayal in global media.
“It was us Americans who dominated the tourism demographics in Egypt before it got such a bad name. But since we are all so easily persuaded by what we hear, it was sadly very easy to single-handedly discourage an entire nation from visiting this country. Egypt has not seen much of a decline in tourism from any other country, but ours.”
Why is it important what a travel blogger has to say about Egypt? Because she has a voice. One that is identifiable by many in her country and one that will reach her 77.7K Instagram followers and the millions who visit her blog. But most importantly, because everything she said rings true with many Egyptians who feel that the hysteria surrounding their country is engineered rather than a reflection of their political reality.
Check out Ramos' blog on Huffington Post here.
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