Swiss or Swedish? It’s a swizz

SWEDEN and Switzerland have launched a joint awareness campaign to help Chinese tourists tell the two countries apart.

The two European nations — one known for its chocolate, cheese and watches, the other for Ikea, Volvo and the 70s pop band Abba — have often been mistaken for each other among the Chinese.

The problem stems largely from the fact that both countries’ names are written similarly in Mandarin — Ruidian (Sweden) and Ruishi (Switzerland) — which begin with the same symbol, according to Swedish consulgeneral in China Victoria Li.

In an effort to put an end to the mixup, the Swedish and Swiss consulates in Shanghai have launched a competition on the Swedish consulate website, asking Chinese people to come up with funny ways to help differentiate the two countries.

Submissions can be accepted as a blog post, cartoon, photo, short film or in any other format.

The winner with the best submission will receive a 12-day trip to Sweden and Switzerland and will be expected to report back on their impressions of both countries, the website states. Entries will be accepted until November 20.

The organisers have also devised a campaign logo portraying a montage of objects and people associated with Sweden and Switzerland on separate maps of each country.

Sweden’s map features meatballs, a Viking and Pippi Longstocking from Astrid Lindgren’s books, as well as two male cartoon figures with a heart between them symbolising gay marriage, which remains illegal in Switzerland. Switzerland’s map features cheese, fondue, the alps and a picture of Roger Federer.

China may not be the only country struggling to tell Sweden and Switzerland apart. Residents of Spanish-speaking countries also fall victim to the confusion as Sweden is spelt ‘‘Suecia” in Spanish while Switzerland is called ‘‘Suiza”.

China was the biggest spender in international tourism last year, overtaking Italy, Japan, France and Britain.

It is the world’s fastest-growing tourism source market, according to the most recent figures from the World Tourism Organisation. — ©