Tourist Paradise

Travel destinations such as Cuba, Egypt and China continue to enjoy great popularity despite considerable human rights violations, and only few tourists are aware of the fact that they support these regimes financially with their package holiday. This online game by the IGFM Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte (ISHR International Society for Human Rights) aims to spread awareness of that fact by pointing out the link between a seemingly perfect holiday destination and its darker side. The user takes over the role of a tourist who enjoys a cocktail at the beach bar, takes photos of a Buddha statue or follows the dance moves of the animator in a disco. Parallel to this, on the lower half of a split screen, a paramilitary character is shown in front of a similar scenery who, with similar movements, sets a press stand on fire, shoots a person or has prisoners deported. At the end, the online game reveals itself as a call by the IGFM. Statement by the jury »The obvious simplification and stylisation of the graphics in ‘Tourist Paradise’ directs user attention all the more to the comparison of the two ‘worlds’. At the end of the game, users thus become aware of the lasting and shocking effect of the link between the idyllic tourist world and the grey area of human rights, which tourists, at the same time, unwillingly help to sustain.«