Saudi tourism officials ‘upset’ over Georgia Love backlash

Former Bachelorette star Georgia Love has confirmed Saudi tourism officials were ‘quite upset’ by social media criticism of her all-expenses paid trip.

Former Channel 7 reporter Georgia Love has cleared up rumours surrounding her controversial trip to Saudi Arabia, after she faced backlash on social media.

Love was among a group of international influencers who were flown to the Middle Eastern nation last week as part of an all-expenses paid trip to help boost tourism.

However, she quickly came under fire for promoting the country on Instagram due to its appalling human rights record and swiftly deleted all evidence of her trip.

Confidential understands that Love’s lavish trip was funded by Visit Saudi tourism in exchange for her promoting the country on social media but she was permitted to stop posting after receiving backlash.

Georgia Love and partner Lee Elliott in Saudi Arabia.

“She was told by the Saudi tourism people to remove all of the posts, they were fantastic with her,” Love’s manager told Confidential.

“They were quite upset that she was getting a lot of negative reaction and they said,

‘We don’t want this to impede on your trip so please remove all those posts and don’t do any more posting’.

“They were very sympathetic to her situation and said, ‘Remove the posts, we don’t require you to do any more posting for us.”

Confidential has contacted Visit Saudi for comment.

One Instagram photo shared by Love, 33, showed her and husband Lee Elliot, 40, gleefully arriving at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and she told fans they were “excited” to be there.

“Well I can categorically say not one person guessed … we’re in Saudi Arabia!!” she captioned.

“After only opening to tourists in 2019, we can’t state how excited we are to be among the first Aussies to tour Saudi.

“To us, it is important to see, experience and learn about all cultures around us and to see how much and how fast our world is changing. We can’t wait to bring you along on this incredible experience with us.”

The couple were slammed on social media for promoting the Middle Eastern country.

Her followers immediately began criticising the trip in the comments section due to Saudi Arabia’s frequent human rights violations and Love later pointed out that it was “not a paid partnership”.

The post was later deleted and Elliott eventually responded to the criticism.

Georgia Love slammed for promoting Saudi Arabia

“I truly hear and understand what you’re saying and where you’re coming from,” he wrote on Instagram.

“We thought long and hard about coming and we decided to come as the world is changing for the better and Saudi along with it.

“We strongly believe by Saudi opening up to the rest of the world and by tourists being here it has to be more accountable and hope this is a change for the better. Trust me we looked into it before coming and believe many things have changed for the better in more recent times and hope they continue to do so.”

Love recently left her post at Channel 7, months after being yanked off-air.

The Saudi government is often criticised for its barbaric legal system and poor treatment of women and members of the LGBTQ community.

Earlier this month, the country executed 81 men, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian national, in a single day.

It has one of the highest execution rates in the world, according to Amnesty International.

Love recently left Channel 7 months after being yanked off-air due to a racist social media post.

She had posted an Instagram image of a cat inside an Asian restaurant with the caption: “Shop attendant or lunch?!” and a laughing emoji.

She has since joined Melbourne Public Relations agency Enthral, which denied having any involvement in her trip.

“Georgia’s employment hasn’t commenced with Enthral as of yet. Georgia’s trip to Saudi Arabia was organised privately and has nothing to do with Enthral,” a spokeswoman said.