10 secrets to tourism success

Tourism is an amazing industry. Someone has described it as the best product in the world: the customer arrives, empties his wallet and returns back home. Properly managed, tourism is a sustainable, profitable and very rewarding industry for any society. How come then, parts of it are fragmented with low margains? Well, from my point [...]

Tourism jokes

These questions about Australia were posted on an Australian Tourism Website… Enjoy!
1. Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Australia? (Sweden)
A: So its true what they say about Swedes.
2. Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney- can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it’s only three thousand miles, [...]

It´s like chinese to me

There are about 1,3 billion Chinese people in China, approximately a quarter of the world’s total population. Chinese economy is doing quite well while Europe’s and the United States economy is struggling to get back on their feet.
China has recently eased on travel regulations and visa application procedures for their citizens, which have resulted in [...]

听起来像中文

中国有大约1.3亿人口, 占世界总人口的四分之一。众所周知，近年来中国的经济发展迅速，而与此同时欧洲和美国的经济却停滞不前。
中国最近放宽了对其本国公民的旅游限制法规，放松了签证申请程序，这使得中国成为光顾瑞典最多的亚洲国家。
可是，瑞典提供旅游与旅行资讯（www.visitsweden.com）的官方网站几个星期前在接受电视新闻采访时却表示：“中国旅客不是我们争取的优先市场“。由于预期的欧洲经济衰退，瑞典旅游营销的重点现在被放在了吸引来自其他欧洲国家的周末或短期（4至5天）旅行。瑞典旅游官方网站甚至没有中文网页。
我们对中国旅客重要性的无知和忽略不禁使我想起了一句瑞典俗语。当不明白某件事情或者不清楚它的意义时，瑞典人会说，“det är som Kinesiska” , 翻译过来是, “听起来像中文”。这与在讲英文国家里流行的“听起来像希腊语”异曲同工。
尽管中国和瑞典文化存在明显差异，我们还是有很多很重要的相似之处的。比如说相对于个人需要，两国文化都更强调社会共同利益，建立社会共识， 都对本国的文化历史重视并感到自豪。关于这方面，请阅读我的其它的有关瑞典商业文化的文章。
我强烈认为，瑞典可以为中国游客提供比快速访问斯德哥尔摩及其列岛更多和更好的选择。这虽然本身也是一个不错的旅游方式，但远不是瑞典可以提供的全部。我相信如果得到适当和有效的开发和推广（最好采用中文），瑞典的异常纯净的湖泊和河流，广阔的森林和北极地区，丰富的野生动物，特色的食物和当地文化， 都会吸引我们来自中国的朋友，为他们提供独特的旅游经验和享受。
既然如此，为什么中国旅客不应该是我们的优先市场呢？还是那句话，听起来像中文！
 
/ Curt Landin

Space tourism business manager wanted

Swedish Space Corporation, SSC, are looking for a business area manager for space tourism. SSC designs, launches, tests and operates space and aerospace systems out of Esrange, the Swedish Space Center close to Kiruna town. Based upon an agreement with Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic, they are now investigating the possibilities for developing Swedish space tourism.
The project [...]