How Out of Touch is This?

Given the chaos going on in Afghanistan right now—what the Aug. 21-27, 2021 Economist cover rightly calls “Biden’s Debacle“—perhaps Tripadvisor needs to update its travel pages for Kabul. With tens of thousands of people fleeing the city, the airport a crisis center of human desperation, and assualt-rifle-toting Taliban terrorizing the streets, you would think that nobody needs, or wants, to book a flight for tourism.

But look at what Tripadvisor touts today. I happened upon the site’s Kabul landing page while doing other online research about Afghanistan—when the Taliban offensive started aggressively advancing in relation to the Islamic New Year on August 10. I collected three screenshots and made them into a collage for you. How out of touch is this? You tell me.