Sweden vs Switzerland, new e-gates and holiday sunbed wars

Is Swederland the answer?

I watched Home Alone 2 over Christmas with my grandchildren. It’s one of their favourite festive films and a decent dollop of humorous nonsense. Although I often miss the end of movies after drifting off to dream of something far more entertaining. In this popular sequel, the protagonist Kevin flies to New York instead of Florida with his family. An easy mistake to make, you might think. But would you plan a trip to Switzerland and end up going to Sweden?

Some people even suggested that Sweden and Switzerland should simply merge into one meatball fondue-serving super country called Swederland. Now there’s a thought.

Having pushed out its own survey to find out, the Swedish tourist board discovered that more than 50% of respondents struggled to distinguish between the two. So, Visit Sweden speedily launched a campaign to end the confusion and has since received hundreds of encouraging comments, suggestions and short films from ambassadors, influencers, news channels and members of the public across the world who have crafted their own lists and breakdowns of each country’s assets.

Among the public suggestions were that Sweden should continue to talk about things like meatballs and cinnamon buns, ABBA, Pippi Longstocking and moose. Meanwhile, Switzerland would be best to focus on chocolate, cheese fondue, Heidi and cows. How does that solve anything? Some people even suggested that Sweden and Switzerland should simply merge into one meatball fondue-serving super country called Swederland. Now there’s a thought. But what did the campaign achieve? Hundreds of articles and lots of people talking about Sweden and Switzerland. Who feels stupid now? Not Visit Sweden, that’s for sure. Perhaps future tourist campaigns comparing Iceland and Ireland or Australia and Austria could be introduced. Someone must be confused by those, too. There are idiots everywhere. Tourist boards take note.

Intelligent, frictionless travel?

Britain’s border control has not had the best of years. Headlines are usually negative, accompanied by pictures of long queues, but that could be about to change. Plans are in the works to deliver what is being described as a ‘gold standard’ for passengers arriving into the UK. Phrases such as ‘frictionless travel’ and an ‘intelligent border’ have been used by the director-general of Border Force, who is keen to introduce new e-gates using only high-tech facial recognition. Let’s face it, when it comes travelling, the words ‘frictionless’ and ‘intelligent’ do not always spring to mind.

For one, you encounter a fair amount of friction when mingling with the great unwashed at an airport – in fact many public spaces. As for intelligence, I work on the notion that most people have a severe lack of it, and work upwards (or downwards) from there.

Let’s face it, when it comes travelling, the words ‘frictionless’ and ‘intelligent’ do not always spring to mind.

Technology can be marvellous, when it works, and it is high time we had better systems in place to speed up travel, make it less of a hassle at times, and ensure it is robust enough to handle itself rather than melt into oblivion and create headlines of traveller woe.

Sunbed wars

I have never been to a hotel or resort with a group where sunbed wars are a problem. But I have witnessed many a battle and early morning rush when away with the Mrs. What about you? A recent headline caught my attention which suggested that sunbed wars could be over. Hurray you might cry, but as ever, the devil is in the detail. A German family have won compensation after complaining that their holiday resort in Rhodes, booked through Tui, did not enforce its own policy to combat the issue.

Hanover District Court heard how a man and his family followed the rules, while most everyone did not, which meant they lost out on an aspect of their holiday worth £278 (how do you calculate that?). Of course, sunbed wars happen everywhere: hotel resorts, cruise ships, and beaches. The ruling could be appealed but it could also mean policies and how they are implemented are tightened which is probably no bad thing. The solution? Buy an inflatable sunbed and have your favourite spot whenever you like. They don’t call me a genius for nothing.