Chris Hemsworth criticised over tourism ad promoting Abu Dhabi despite ‘notorious’ human rights violations | Chris Hemsworth

Australian movie star Chris Hemsworth has been criticised for starring in a slick advertisement promoting Abu Dhabi as a tourism destination in partnership with the United Arab Emirates government, the latest celebrity to use their influence to promote the gulf state.

Hemsworth features in the minute-long ad with his actor and model wife, Elsa Pataky, which they posted on their Instagram accounts on Wednesday. The ad was also shared by the Experience Abu Dhabi Instagram account.

The international non-governmental advocacy organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the UAE “invests in a strategy to paint the country as progressive, tolerant, and rights-respecting while carrying out repression against dissent”.

Hemsworth’s campaign video to entice tourists to the UAE capital begins by depicting him and Pataky pretending to film an intense action movie.

Hanging from the side of a building in between takes, sweat dripping down his brow, Hemsworth tells Pataky he “could really use a vacation right now”. “Yeah, me too,” she replies.

The ad flicks back and forth between the fake movie set and a montage of clips of Hemsworth and Pataky enjoying various tourist attractions in Abu Dhabi with their young children, including kayaking, riding horses in the desert and surfing.

The ad was released on the same day the Albanese government announced it had finalised its free trade deal with the UAE, eliminating tariffs on virtually all Australian exports to the gulf state despite concerns about its treatment of migrant workers.

After resisting calls from the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) to call off the agreement, the trade minister, Don Farrell, said on Wednesday the deal would result in about $678m worth of additional Australian exports to the UAE.

The ACTU had said the UAE would be “one of the most repressive countries any Australian government has ever done a bilateral trade agreement with”.

The peak body for unions said the UAE was “notorious for serious human rights and labour rights violations including modern slavery” and 90% of its workforce were migrants.

Fans criticised Hemsworth – who starred in the Thor blockbusters and has been a Tourism Australia global ambassador – for participating in a campaign to promote the UAE without mentioning any human rights concerns.

Prof Justine Nolan, the director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of New South Wales, said the advertisement was a “very deliberate strategy” to promote an image that was different from the “reality on the ground”.

“They’re trying to move on and improve their image,” she said. “They’ve come under fire for their treatment of dissent, protest, women, LGBTI+ communities [and] migrant workers.”

She did not believe the timing of the campaign and the free trade agreement was coincidental.

“It’s definitely true there has been some progress in the UAE but there are still many people because of their gender or race or sexual orientation are second-class citizens,” she said.

“[Australia] is saying, ‘We’re open for business here but we’re going to close our eyes to those aspects’.”

A spokesperson for Amnesty International said it was concerned about human rights abuses across the United Arab Emirates, “particularly the government’s suppression of free speech, peaceful protest and dissent through practices of arbitrary arrest, detention and in some cases torture of political prisoners”.

Hemsworth and Pataky aren’t the first local celebrities to stir controversy for taking promoting tourism in the gulf region of the Middle East.

Last year, actor Rebel Wilson was criticised after reportedly attending the grand opening of Atlantis The Royal Dubai hotel in the UAE’s most populous city with her girlfriend, and promoting their trip on social media.

In 2019, after the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia used social media influencers, including some Australians, to try to repair its damaged image.

The UAE is Australia’s largest trade and investment partner in the Middle East, with more than $9.9bn in two-way trade and $20.7bn in two-way investment in 2023.

Guardian Australia attempted to contact Hemsworth for comment through his talent agency, Australian Talent & Media Specialists, as well as Centr, the fitness app he co-founded.