Sweden has had enough of being confused with Switzerland
Sweden and Switzerland are too often confused – at least the tourism organisation Visit Sweden thinks so and is launching an advertising campaign to help clear things up.
Switzerland Tourism is relaxed about the news and says Switzerland is “unmistakable” anyway.
“Welcome to Sweden (not Switzerland)” is the title of the video circulated on social media by Visit Sweden. As the Swedish tourism office announced on Tuesday, both countries are beautiful and have the same initial letters in German and English.
External Content
But that’s where the similarities should stop, if the Swedes have their way. Every year, 120,000 people even google the question of whether Sweden and Switzerland are the same. In the US, a study by Visit Sweden found that half of the respondents were not sure if there was a difference.
In the Visit Sweden video, a woman dressed in what appears to be official attire addresses the Swiss directly in front of two Swedish flags. She proposes a treaty whereby each country concentrates on its core competencies.
According to this, the Swiss yodel to their hearts’ content in their mountains, while deep silence reigns in Sweden’s majestic nature. And while time is forgotten in Sweden, Switzerland builds luxury watches.
+ ‘You’re Swiss? Stockholm is so beautiful…’
‘No comment’
Switzerland Tourism told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA that guests would not confuse Switzerland, neither with destinations with similar names nor with other Alpine destinations.
As a matter of principle, Switzerland Tourism said it did not comment on the advertising activities of other tourism organisations. However, Switzerland Tourism is happy to see “other humorous tourism advertising”.
Visit Sweden, the company in charge of Swedish tourism marketing, said it would contact its Swiss colleagues. Sweden does not mind being confused with Switzerland from time to time, it said. But it is worth clearing up the confusion.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
More
Why Switzerland is among the ten fastest-warming countries in the world
More
In Switzerland four out of ten people have a migrant background – who are they?
More
Mennonite movement turns 500 in Zurich, where it all began
More
Suicides in Switzerland quadruple among older people
More
French gangs target luxury cars in Switzerland
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.