After President Trump reportedly called African nations, Haiti, and El Salvador "shithole countries" earlier this month, it made sense that folks from the places he snubbed were pissed off. But now some of those countries are using the slur to drive even more attention to themselves—as thriving tourism hubs.
Not only has Airbnb pledged $100,000 toward advertising listings in El Salvador, Haiti, and Africa thanks to "some expletive-filled interest," but tourism organizations in Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia (or "Nambia," as Trump calls it) are now marketing their countries as the loveliest, most irresistible shitholes on earth, the Wall Street Journal reports. Namibia's Gondwana Collection even hired a Trump impersonator to narrate a video all about the destination.
"We would like to invite you to come to shithole Namibia, one of the best shithole countries out there," the video boasts. "Not only is our country a shithole place—even our elephants are highly qualified to dump large amounts of shit everywhere in our wide-open shithole country."
A Zambian tourism agency got on board too, inviting would-be tourists to a place where "beautiful vistas and breathtaking wildlife are our trump card."
Botswana—which apparently had a little too much pride to fully embrace the shithole thing—went ahead and officially rebranded itself a "waterhole country," showing off all the lovely critters that call the nation home.
In addition to Africa, Haiti has gotten in on the action, too. Fabien Dodard—creative director of the ad agency Parkour Studio—is currently working on running a series of ads in Washington, DC, all about how much of a shithole his homeland is. He's raised more than $6,000 on GoFundme for his campaign to showcase "Haiti’s shitty landscape, totally shitty people, and year-round shitty weather."
It looks like Trump's "shithole" tirade might actually do some good after all—though the president's alleged comments certainly didn't do his own properties any favors.
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Related: Trump's Shithole Countries
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