In a new tourism campaign, Sweden is highlighting what sets it apart from Switzerland, staking a … [+]
In a new tourism campaign, Sweden’s tourism board is poking fun at those who mix up the Nordic country with Switzerland, a European country to the south that’s nestled in the Alps.
Every year, 120,000 people Google: “Are Sweden and Switzerland the same?” and about 85,000 of those searches originate in the United States, according to data from MyTelescope that Visit Sweden shared.
Visit Sweden’s clever, fun-loving video includes a mock press conference and plea to Switzerland that the two countries need to better distinguish themselves. It starts off with a newspaper clipping showing a presidential blooper involving a mix up over the two countries. (Could it be a nod to the gaffe that President Joe Biden made in 2022 when he declared that Switzerland would be joining NATO instead of Sweden before quickly correcting the mistake?)
The fictional address behind a podium goes on to share a proposition as to what Switzerland gets to promote versus Sweden’s messaging. While Switzerland gets the banks, luxury watches, mountain tops and yodeling, Sweden proposes scenic stretches of sand banks, buzzy rooftops, and quiet adventures are all within its purview.
“LSD goes to Switzerland because you invented that,” the speaker says in the video. “And Sweden will get the Northern lights, a different kind of surreal experience.”
(Indeed, labs in Switzerland were the first to synthesize lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD).
Here’s the clever video from Visit Sweden:
To better understand how people get Switzerland and Sweden confused, the Swedish tourism board conducted a survey about people’s perceptions of the two countries. About half of respondents don’t know the differences between the two cultures.
About one in 10 American respondents admitted to booking (or almost booking) a flight, tour, or activity in the wrong country when meaning to travel to Sweden or Switzerland, according to Visit Sweden.
Beach huts on the beach in Skanör. Skanör is an old town on the south coast of Sweden
It’s not just Americans, either. More than one in 10 Brits confuse Sweden and Switzerland as being the same, and 28 percent wrongly identified furniture company IKEA and Swedish Europop group ABBA as things they loved about Switzerland instead of Sweden.
“If people struggle to separate our two countries, we need to help them,” said Susanne Andersson, CEO at Visit Sweden, in a press statement accompanying the new campaign. “We can’t change the names of our nations, but we can become more distinct. Switzerland is often referred to as the pinnacle of luxury—however, Sweden offers luxury of a different nature, and these differences, in all of their beauty, are what we want to showcase.”
Scenic summer sunset in Stockholm.
Some of Sweden’s famous outdoor attributes are the Northern lights that paint the sky with swirls of green in the winter and the “midnight sun” phenomenon in the summer when visitors and residents can see the sun all night long. (That means you can play a round of golf after midnight at at Björkliden Arctic Golf Course).
Long before the cold plunge trend became popular, Sweden has been all about its winter swims at Cold Bath Houses like Arctic Bath, a hotel that has floating cabins where guests can take frigid dips into the Lule River.
Just remember, if you’re traveling to Sweden for these types of outdoor adventures, look for flights to Stockholm Arlanda Airport — not the Zurich Airport.