They’re each nations in Europe that start with S and 120,000 folks a 12 months combine them up, Google searches present.
Sweden’s vacationer board has determined it’s time to make it clear that the nation shouldn’t be, in truth, the identical nation as Switzerland.
In accordance with Go to Sweden, the 2 nations are continuously being blended up.
To dispel confusion, the vacationer board has launched a humorous new marketing campaign.
Right here’s how one can inform the distinction between the 2 European nations.
Sweden launches video to indicate vacationers it isn’t Switzerland
Go to Sweden’s marketing campaign video is titled ‘Welcome to Sweden (not Switzerland)’ and was circulated on social media this week.
Every year, 120,000 folks Google whether or not Sweden and Switzerland are the identical nation, in accordance with information website SwissInfo.
A examine performed by Go to Sweden within the US discovered that half of the respondents weren’t certain if there was a distinction between the 2 nations.
Even international leaders have made the blunder. Throughout a NATO summit speech final 12 months, US President Joe Biden erroneously referenced Switzerland whereas discussing Sweden’s bid to affix the army alliance.
Within the satirical video, an official consultant standing at a podium between two Swedish flags addresses the “leaders and residents of Switzerland.”
She declares that it’s time to make the excellence between the 2 nations clear by deciding “who talks about what.”
Switzerland can speak about mountain tops, yodelling and watches, for instance, however Sweden has a communication monopoly over rooftop bars, silence and forgetting about time.
“So long as each tourism organisations persist with this division in all communication with the surface world, the confusion ought to come to an finish,” Sweden proposes.
How is Sweden completely different from Switzerland?
To make the excellence clear between the 2 nations, Go to Sweden has additionally detailed some methods by which the 2 nations differ on their web site.
Whereas Switzerland has one of many world’s largest gold reserves, Sweden has ‘forest gold’. Every autumn, Swedes forage for Chantarelles, a kind of mushroom with a gilded sheen.
For those who like historic banks, head to Switzerland, however if you happen to choose strolling down seashores and sandbanks, you must go to Sweden, the vacationer board says. Sweden has 48,000 kilometres of shoreline and wild archipelagos that jut out into the Baltic sea.
In Switzerland, you possibly can “get pleasure from some spectacular mild reveals made with projections and LEDs,” Go to Sweden says, however “in Sweden there’s no want for electrical energy to placed on a present.” The Nordic nation has its personal pure spectacle – the Northern Lights.
Lastly, the vacationer board reminds guests that whereas Switzerland is a rustic of “many attention-grabbing sounds” like yodelling and cowbells, Sweden is a spot of peace and quiet the place the soundscapes will provide help to “wind down and join with nature.”