NEW DELHI: Sally Elazab has visited India before as a tourist, but this time her trip is different. Known as The Adventurous Mom, the influencer from Abu Dhabi returned to New Delhi to create content specifically for her followers in the Arab world.
Elazab is part of a 15-member team of UAE-based content creators specializing in travel, tech, food, and lifestyle who arrived in India on Aug. 26 at the invitation of the Ministry of External Affairs.
They are touring the country for eight days, visiting historical sites and top educational institutes in Delhi, as well as the Himalayan region of Leh and Ladakh.
“This kind of initiative will further bring the Arab world and India together … India deserves to have lots of tourists from the Arab world because they can find many things that they have not seen anywhere (else),” Elazab told Arab News.
“It’s full of culture, full of diversity. You see diversity the moment you step into the country. There are lots of villages, lots of languages, and many types of food.”
She was already sharing parts of the visit with her 318,000 Instagram followers, trying, as she said, also to break some negative stereotypes about India.
“I think our visit will change lots of people’s minds about India … We are safe here, we are eating lots of good things, and we are meeting the nicest people ever,” she said.
“I have been eating continuously since coming, I have not stopped, it’s so flavorful. Every state has its own cuisine, which is beautiful. Whatever you like, you will find in India.”
Abdulla Al-Marzooqi, a content creator with a civil engineering background and over 515,000 followers across social media accounts, was focused on showing India more from the tech side.
He has already visited the 17th-century Red Fort — the largest monument in Delhi that historically served as the main residence of the Mughal emperors.
“There is something about India. Delhi is such a blooming city. I wanted to see the historical places … I am amazed with the quality of the buildings, and I will talk about it in my posts. I want to show things that the mainstream media is not showing to people in the Middle East,” he said.
“I have content from the Red Fort, I have content from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology). The IIT has a branch in Abu Dhabi … I want to visit India again.”
This is the second time that the Indian government invited foreign content creators. In April, a group of 19 influencers from Nepal and Sri Lanka visited India’s most iconic monument, the Taj Mahal in Agra and Mumbai — the country’s financial hub and the center of its Bollywood film industry.
Rutavi Mehta, an Indian content creator based in Abu Dhabi who has been helping the Indian Embassy in the UAE coordinate the project, told Arab News the purpose was to show India from different perspectives.
“We have engineers, tech influencers, a motorbike racer who is a girl, a food blogger, lifestyle, fashion, travel (influencers). We have got different influencers from different countries,” she said.
“These content creators can create a positive image about India in the Middle East … Most Emiratis come here for health treatment. This gives them perspective about India. They know India, but they have not seen the other side of India.”
Mona Tajarbi, a lifestyle and beauty influencer who has over 1.6 million followers on Instagram, wanted to show a more personalized image of the country.
“In the Middle East, everyone knows about India. My content is more to know India from my perspective. Why you should come here, why you should visit,” she said. “Half of the people don’t know Leh and Ladakh … We will let the Middle East know about these places.”
The mountainous region is in the eastern part of the larger Kashmir territory that has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India and China since 1959.
It is one of the most sparsely populated regions in India and is increasingly promoted as a tourist destination.
“This kind of trip helps us to discover India more … The whole idea is to change the minds of some people who have negative perceptions of India. India is a big country, it has lots of historical places and heritage,” said Sohaila Wael, an Egyptian travel content creator based in the UAE, who was also part of the influencer group.
“In Arab countries, there is a certain perception that India is dangerous, there is a lot of traffic, it’s not safe. But when we are here, we don’t feel anything like (that). It’s quite easy to move around, there is no sense of anxiety … I like the way Indian people interact with us. They are very polite.”
