Travel influencers boost tourism to Taliban-run Afghanistan

Female and male travel influencers gain attention by gushing about visits to Afghanistan while one critic notes that their trips legitimize the "gender apartheid" in the country.

Margaritta, a 33-year-old travel influencer from Germany, embarked on a three-month solo trip through Afghanistan in May 2024. Despite a “media echo that Afghanistan was not safe,” she said, “I was not scared.”

She “felt fantastic,” Margaritta, who asked that only her first name be used for security reasons, told NBC News. “I was treated like a queen.”

The trip was “one of those amazing experiences that also pushed me,” she added in a post on her TikTok channel, @margarittasworld, which has over 18,000 subscribers.

Margaritta is among a handful of travel influencers who have gone to Afghanistan since the Taliban took power following a chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led forces in 2021.

They are seen exploring the country’s landlocked, mountainous terrain and its tribal culture in videos posted online, contesting perceptions that the country is unsafe and hostile to women. While thrilling for the influencers and their followers, critics accuse these carefully edited travelogues of whitewashing the harsh realities of life in Afghanistan, particularly for women, and rehabilitating the country’s autocratic rulers.