Arab maintains that travel vlogging in Afghanistan humanizes the population and helps bridge cultural gaps that are ignored by traditional Western media narratives.

“As travelers, as travel YouTubers, what we tend to do is we go to places and we try to see the humanity in it all in order to bridge a gap of peace through the humor, through the humanization, through being able to talk to people from different cultures.”

Harry Jaggard claims that his travel content has no political agenda and that his primary goal is documenting his experiences as a tourist.

“I went to Afghanistan with zero agenda. I'm not working for anyone. I work for myself. Had zero agenda. And I filmed what I saw.”

Nolan Saumure argues that interactions with the Taliban are unavoidable for tourists and that their presence does not constitute a political endorsement of the regime.

“When you're a tourist in Afghanistan, you can't avoid the Taliban. You're always going through Taliban checkpoints and you're always being invited to talk and have tea with them. Um regardless if you fundamentally disagree with their beliefs, which I personally do, it's unavoidable.”

Yalda Hakim argues that travel influencers filming in Afghanistan are exploiting their privilege to normalize and glorify a regime that fundamentally oppresses women.

“The fact that they think they're friendly or they're laughing about the situation just shows the extreme privilege, you know, being a westerner frolicking around these places because you think you can frankly and the women of these countries and especially Afghanistan in the 21st century”