Vlogger Eva Zu Beck to initiate her new venture

Islamabad : Eva zu Beck, travel vlogger behind PIA’s viral ‘Kiki Challenge’ video, on Saturday announced to start the world’s first interactive travel show for Pakistan combining social media, TV, live content, written word and on the ground activities.

Eva announced her new venture in presence of a large number of media persons gathered at National Press Club to attend her press conference. With her passion to promote tourism in Pakistan and fight the misperception regarding Pakistan on social media, Eva looked all set and excited to start her new initiative.

“Nearly 40 per cent of travellers take the idea of their destinations through social media. We find Pakistan totally missing in that space,” she said while identifying challenges faced by Pakistani tourism. “Other notable challenges are tourist friendly infrastructure and lack of information for tourists on available means of transport, hotel, guest houses etc,” she said adding that her initiative might lead to availability of such information.

She said the mission of the show would be to transform how international travellers think about Pakistan and create positive, long-lasting change to the local tourism industry. “It is high time we establish Pakistan as a destination for travellers looking to experience the perfect combination of nature and culture in a single setting,” states Eva. “The big question that nobody is asking is how we develop the local tourism industry in responsible, environment friendly ways?”

She said that in attracting more attention to Pakistan as a tourism hub, the travel show will work with local organisations to expand the current tourism infrastructure and ensure responsible growth.

“In addition to promoting tourism in Pakistan on international level, this program will showcase the creativity and media innovation coming out of the country’s young generation of creators. At the heart of the undertaking will be collaboration with local talent and foreign influencers,” she added.

The famed traveller is in the process of formulating production plan for the show. Over the coming weeks, Eva will be scouting for a small production team, local organizations working in tourism and environmental sector as well as production partners and sponsors.

Since attracting international viral attention on Independence Day, Eva’s PIA’s “Kiki Challenge” video has been featured across all the major media outlets and TV channels in Pakistan. The video, created to promote tourism in Pakistan, sparked lively debate and an enormous outpouring of positive public sentiment. Eva zu Beck has since been interviewed by some of the country’s top TV anchors about her mission to promote tourism in Pakistan and change how the country is viewed by foreign media.

“I received overwhelming positive response from every section of the society,” said Eva who is coming to terms with the fame she has attained after the video. “I try to hide my identity on public places by wearing glasses etc but every time people recognize me for the video,” she said adding that she is amazed by the love and encouragement she has received in Pakistan. “I came here with totally different perception. The perception about Pakistan on foreign media is totally opposite,” she said.

About notice taken by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) she said that she didn’t receive any written notice by NAB. “I know about the notice as much as you all know about it.” She said that she was blogging about Karachi when she was contacted by PIA marketing team to work on this unusual idea. “The video was recorded in training plane parked in a covered training area of the airline after attaining all formal permissions,” she said.

Eva is a female travel vlogger with a passion for exploring the world’s undiscovered places. After graduating from the University of Oxford, she spent five years developing Culture Trip, a London-based travel media startup. From being the company’s first employee to setting up its editorial and social media team, she led Culture Trip towards explosive growth of 5 million social media fans and over one billion video views.

In March 2018, Eva set out on her own venture, producing and hosting travel videos and photography. In just 6 months, her content has already attracted an audience of 200k followers and millions of video views across Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.