Can Influencers Improve Saudi Arabia’s Image?

For Lal, 31, it was a rare chance to see a country like nowhere else in the world—and with all her expenses paid. It was a perk shared with other so-called influencers who make a living from their wide social media followings. For the Islamic kingdom, it was timely and helpful publicity as the country struggled to keep friends after the international outcry over the gruesome murder of newspaper columnist Jamal Khashoggi last year.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been opening up Saudi Arabia to the world before Khashoggi was killed. Now, to help spread a more positive vibe as he and his country try to emerge from global censure, the kingdom has been welcoming influencers such as Lal.

Her 10-day tour was arranged by Gateway KSA, a program that started offering tours two years ago and is funded by Saudi corporate sponsorship. It’s hosted by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, a former intelligence chief who later had a short stint as Saudi ambassador to the U.S. following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Prince Mohammed has loosened social restrictions and championed events including a concert by French DJ David Guetta at a motor racing festival also attended by influencers. Next up is a heavyweight boxing clash. The country plans to issue tourist visas for the first time later this month.

But the crown prince, the de facto leader of the nation, has also cracked down on dissidents, escalated the war in Yemen, and upended the country’s reputation, carefully honed since the Sept. 11 attacks, as a predictable partner to Western allies.

“What we present to these young people is that there’s another side to the story about Saudi Arabia than what they simply read in the press,” Prince Turki says of the guests of Gateway KSA. “We have much to do in the kingdom to affect the opinion of others.”

The program’s effort “shows that the Saudis are looking far beyond just lobbying and public-relations firms to garner sway in the West,” says Ben Freeman, director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative, which tracks lobbying at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C. After the kingdom’s efforts to rebrand were derailed by Khashoggi’s murder, “it just makes perfect sense for them to pursue alternative avenues of influence like this,” he says.

Prince Mohammed was castigated abroad last October after the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi by agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi government has vehemently denied that he played a role. Since the murder, PR firms that represent Saudi Arabia in Washington have been marked with a “scarlet letter,” Freeman says. Foreign executives once friendly with Prince Mohammed severed ties or canceled visits, though many are now following bankers back into the country.

A program like Gateway KSA would have been inconceivable in Saudi Arabia five years ago, when religious police roamed the streets shouting at women to cover up. Now the kingdom is eager to use social media to show a softer side.

Indeed, the extent of what the Gateway program was willing (and allowed) to do for the influencers was breathtaking by Saudi standards. In a country where unmarried couples can face arrest, one of this year’s visitors, a former contestant on the reality TV show The Bachelor, brought her boyfriend and lounged under the night stars. Lal and a shirtless man, his face covered, posed in the desert with a sword.

Gateway KSA was born after Dutch-Australian influencer Nelleke Van Zandvoort Quispel visited the kingdom on business. She saw an opportunity to show another side of the country and proposed the concept to Prince Turki when they met at a Georgetown University event. The first Gateway KSA delegation, a group of students from Harvard, visited in 2018.

More than 200 people have visited through the program so far, with guests falling into two groups: university students and social media influencers. Their costs are covered, though they don’t receive any other fees.

Gateway KSA doesn’t have a direct relationship with the government, though sponsors include state-controlled Saudi Telecom, Saudi Basic Industries, and Saudi Arabian Airlines. “It’s not that I’m particularly pro-Saudi or have a political agenda,” Quispel says. “I think the way in which we show the country is in a very subtle and fair way.”

The vision fits well with the government’s strategy to rehabilitate Saudi Arabia’s image. The government is focused on expanding Saudi soft power to counter rivals such as Turkey. Officials have courted or pressured Saudi artists to help and also plowed millions of dollars into lobbying politicians and hosting pop concerts. Influencers play a key role in spreading the message.

While some of Lal’s followers attacked her for posting “propaganda,” others were won over, saying they couldn’t wait to visit. She posted stories of her trip, including how she stumbled across rules on gender segregation by accidentally entering the male side of a Starbucks. Lal recalled broaching the topic of Khashoggi’s murder with Saudis whom she met. They told her they weren’t proud of what their government did, she says.

“I think everyone from any country in the world can relate to that statement,” says Lal, speaking by phone last month while on a tour in Europe. “It’s obviously not a very popular opinion. People want me to talk badly about Saudi,” she says. “We live in America, and it’s more convenient to demonize other countries so you feel like there’s nothing to learn from.”

Bad press is nothing new for Saudi Arabia, Prince Turki says. But the Gateway KSA visitors are free to say whatever they want about their trip, he says. “It’s not a propaganda exercise,” he says. “It’s simply a human engagement exercise.”

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.