WESTLOCK – A Weslock resident’s online video about how safe the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is has gone viral and recently caught the attention of one of the country’s highest-ranking officials.
Crystal Fisher, an artist, entrepreneur and content creator and her husband Josh, who is an engineer working on a project in the UAE, have been living there for just over a year. To date, Fisher has created 200 videos and has amassed a large following on TikTok and some on other social media platforms. She created the viral video this fall while sitting in the Ajman City Centre food court, demonstrating how safe the country is after she noticed people leaving belongings and personal items unsupervised.
She shared the video with her TikTok followers, and it soon went viral, starting at around 20,000 views, until the Lt. General His Highness Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s deputy prime minister and minister of interior came across the video and shared it as an Instagram story.
“I went to the (food court) and there was a laptop and a phone sitting on the table, so I did a video,” said Fisher. “In this country it is an honour to be recognized by the Sheiks and it is not something they do too often. When I started receiving messages that his highness shared my video, I was quite shocked because I'm just a little content creator, so for him to notice my video is absolutely amazing.”
After Al Nahyan shared the video, the number of views jumped by a few thousand and by the end of the day it grew to over 45,000 views in just a matter of hours. Fisher has been working as a content creator full-time for the past eight months. Most of her videos are under a minute in length and focus on art, travel, and food. In addition to TikTok, she also shares her photos and video content on other social media platforms including YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.
“I have been having some success with my videos across each of my platforms but nothing like this,” said Fisher, noting as of Oct. 6 the video had reached over 59,000 views on TikTok and was also shared on two news station websites, with the combined total of views reaching more than 660,000.
As she pointed out in the video, Fisher noted how safe the UAE is for many reasons and has received a lot of support and positive feedback from UAE residents because they like seeing that westerners feel safe in their country.
Fisher has travelled to other parts of the world as well and decided to try her hand at being a content creator following the pandemic. She also has photos, videos, and content that she’s created from trips to Alaska, the Panama Canal, the Caribbean, Central America, and across Canada, that have not yet been shared.
“After two years of COVID-19 lockdowns, something in me shifted and I decided that we only get one life to live so I might as well live life to the fullest,” explained Fisher. “My content is based on art, food, and travel. I love showcasing restaurants, art stores and galleries, and local attractions.
“I am growing and gaining more experience (as a content creator) and it is getting more and more fine-tuned. My views are growing, and my quality of content is going up.”
Fisher and her husband Josh have travelled to all seven Emirates and Oman since living in the UAE for the past year and have showcased some of the great attractions there like the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, the Dubai Miracle Garden, the world's largest natural flower garden, as well as visited many beaches and smaller venues like the fish and fruit markets in the country.
While she and her husband have had to adjust to the heat and other differences from living abroad, Fisher said they have enjoyed travelling and experiencing a different part of the world. Although they expect to be in the UAE for another six months, she hopes to continue being a content creator, focusing on local content, when they return to Westlock in the coming months.
“There are so many amazing places in Alberta to show all my viewers,” said Fisher.
