GREAT TOURISM GAFFES
Photos of wrong countries and obscenely shaped maps bedevil travel groups — but on the plus side, it can draw in tourists
The Lithuanian tourism department has been caught using photos of other countries to advertise its own travel appeal.
The bureau’s head, Jurgita Kazlauskiene, was forced to step down last week after it emerged that images of nations including Slovakia and Finland had been promoted as Lithuania under the slogan “Real is Beautiful.”
The department’s claim that images of other countries were sufficient to “communicate emotion” was derided online with social media users posting their own “Real is Beautiful” images.
Even the country’s prime minister, Saulius Skvernelis, joined in, posting a photo of a EU Commission building in Brussels under the caption: “From tomorrow, we start working in the new government building in Karoliniskes.”
Karoliniskes is a suburb in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital.
He added in a second post: “And now seriously … waiting for answers as to why it happened and who is responsible for this.”
Lithuania’s Real is Beautiful Facebook page remains live, with more than 62,000 likes. As well as posting its own photos of the eastern European country, it encourages visitors to share theirs.
Of course, Lithuania’s tourism department is far from the only travel-related organization to have been tripped up by an unfortunate mistake.
In 2014, Visit Greece came under fire for including images of the Twelve Apostles rock formation — one of the most recognizable sights in Australia. It attempted to justify its use by saying the clip showed constellations that carry Greek names.
In England, the Hertfordshire town of Berkhamsted was mocked on Facebook in 2014 for handing out a phallus-shaped map to visitors. The map was produced for the Canal and River Trust, but the similarities apparently went unnoticed for some time.
“This is one of about 100 maps we’ve been promoting,” Simon Salem from the trust told the BBC.
“We didn’t notice it. Somebody should have seen it, I agree. You could accuse us of being a bit naive, but canals are long, straight things, and when you draw a map it tends to be that sort of shape. If it gets at least one more person down to the canal, then it has worked.”
In Malaysia, a stress ball that appeared to have been produced by that country’s tourist board caused a stir last year, thanks to an unfortunate typo. “Come and distress in Malaysia,” it proclaimed.
Perhaps the worst tourism ad of all time was an attempt by the Singapore Tourism Board to attract more Filipino visitors with a video campaign. The two-minute clip was published in 2014, but with its terrible dubbing, ear-numbing soundtrack and ludicrous script, it was widely ridiculed on social media websites, prompting its removal from the tourism board’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Back in England, authorities in Mevagissey, Cornwall, raised eyebrows last year by deciding to rename a local beauty spot as Hitler’s Walk.
The moniker dates back to the 1930s, when a local councillor — one Wright Harris — earned a reputation for unstinting dedication in his role as overseer of harbour fees. He had a habit of watching boats come and go from a viewpoint above the town, so residents began referring to it as Hitler’s Walk in a mocking jibe at both Harris’s officiousness and the then-rising Austrian politician.
The joke may have been a slice of defiant British humour in the face of events in Germany, but the amusement value looks to have been lost to the passage of time.
Few people were laughing when Mevagissey Parish Council put up the new sign last year.
You could accuse us of being a bit naive, but ... if it gets at least one more person down to the canal, then it has worked.