Paper short abstract:

In Mali, tourism has ended up in the heart of the French-Malian diplomatic relations and the Malian government tried to invert the disastrous image of Mali by promoting cultures of the North, in particular Tuareg, seen in the imagination of European as " blue men "

Paper long abstract:

Red zone against blue men : tourism in the French-Malian diplomacy

Long perceived as a model of democracy, stability and hospitality, Mali, and particularly its northern territories, has gradually been shown in the media as a zone of traffics, terrorism and religious extremism. This degradation of the external image of the country led to a set of security measures adopted by the French embassy (and followed by other embassies), among which the implementation of a red zone, where travelers were "formally discouraged" to go, that hasn't stopped growing since 2009. On site, these warnings were perceived as a revenge from the French president on his Malian counterpart, who had refused to sign the agreement for the readmission of Malian immigrants in France. Whatever is the basis of this interpretation, tourism has ended up in the heart of the French-Malian diplomatic relations and the Malian government tried to invert the disastrous image of Mali by publishing statements , organizing tourist events in the red zone and promoting cultures of the North, in particular Tuareg, seen in the imagination of European as "blue men". Concurrently, tourists who attended these events found themselves at the heart of this image war and were often driven, by local tour guides, to invest in an unforeseen militance.