It should be nice and warm and not too expensive, that’s what matters. On the other hand, whether this Antalya, to which the holiday plane is going, is now in Turkey or in Tunisia – what does that matter? Don’t need to know. True to the motto: “Madrid or Milan? – The main thing is Italy”, which the former national soccer player Andreas Möller allegedly proclaimed when he wanted to switch to a foreign club in 1992.
It wasn’t about vacation, it was about a job. Although quite a few people are still of the opinion that Möller was mostly in beach mode on the field. In this respect, this text does not digress here, especially since football will still play a central role in it.
But first back to the holidays. It may be completely irrelevant to some holidaymakers where they spend their free weeks, as long as the weather, the quality of the drinks and the potential of the local Instagram spots to show off have a positive effect on their well-being: for hoteliers, yoga teachers and street vendors it is very important whether the Schmidts their guests and customers are. Or not because they are sunbathing at the other end of the Mediterranean Sea.
There are – even that happens – even travelers whose well-being depends on a specific destination and who promptly take legal action when others are not so particular about it. The case of a Saxon woman who wanted to book a flight to Porto around ten years ago but was issued a ticket to Bordeaux is legendary. In the woman’s dialect, the two city names sound very similar, so that the travel agency assumed that the customer wanted to go to France.
That didn’t help anyone: not the Saxon woman, and of course no innkeeper in Porto either. Not even in Bordeaux did anyone benefit from this error because the woman with the wrong ticket did not board the flight there. The argument that Bordeaux is basically on the Atlantic and that there is even better wine there did not work for her.
Florence or Dresden, Kleiner Matterhorn or Großer Bärenstein, that makes a difference. In a pinch, anyone who earns their money in tourism has to cheat a bit. Especially when the local sights are not world-class. Then you adorn yourself with foreign feathers. Although Dresden doesn’t really have to hide behind such. But one does not seem to trust one’s own attractiveness, at least to be on the safe side, the city has adopted the nickname Elbflorenz.
And is by no means alone in this. Beirut: the Paris of the East. Bad Bramstedt: the Venice of the North. The small town in northern Germany has to compete unfairly with Amsterdam and Copenhagen for this title. And with Giethoorn. In turn, there are more than a hundred regions in Germany that compete with Switzerland. The Saxon Switzerland with the Großer Bärenstein might still be conceded. But the Calauer, the Elfringhauser, the Velpker Switzerland? Where bumps should pass as mountains?
This free-riding tourism does not particularly affect Switzerland, Paris or Venice. The case is different in the Swedish region of Halland south of Gothenburg. In a way, it has ceased to exist because nobody can find it anymore. At least not on social media. Because her name was simply hijacked. The tourism director is already begging: “Give us our hashtag back!” So that his advertising for the beautiful town of Varberg and the imposing Tjolöholm Castle doesn’t just fade away. At the moment, anyone who follows #Halland only ever sees the imposing calves of soccer world star Erling Haaland. That you write it differently: is not so important to many people. The main thing is a direct hit.
Stefan Fischer usually knows where he is and where he wants to go. What irritated him in Halland was that he met Ötzi there – in an exhibition.
(Photo: Bernd Schifferdecker)