Cretan Hoteliers Unhappy With Swedish Ad

A private Swedish company has caused a lot of reaction in its effort to attract customers by preventing Swedish people from visiting Crete.

The Liseberg company, located in Gothenburg has distributed posters and has published on its central website, an advertisement showing the picture of a boy crying, accompanied by the text: “Some children are forced to go to Crete in summer –  Guaranteed cheerful kids in our Liseberg park”.

The Chania Hoteliers Association noticed this advertising campaign and organized a protest to the Swedish Embassy in Athens. The Association sent a letter of complaint to the Swedish ambassador in Athens.

The letter was also communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Minister of Tourism, Olga Kefalogianni, who will go to Sweden on April 25 in an effort to enhance the tourist flow to Greece for the coming summer.

During her stay, Kefalogianni will address the event, Greece in our hearts, where Lena Liljeroth, the Swedish Minister of Culture is going to participate. The Greek Tourism Minister will hold meetings with senior executives of big travel agencies and with representatives of airline companies. She is also going to give interviews to major media in order to enhance the image of Greece in the tourism market in Sweden.

The president of the Chania Hoteliers Association told Flashnews.gr: “We understand that the specific company wants to attract customers, but not with such methods. In a letter it stated that, “As Hoteliers Association of Southern Chania, representing the most important destination of Swedish people, we are complaining about this unacceptable action of this amusement park and we ask your help, in order to stop immediately this defamation. It is known that the bonds between Greece and Sweden, and especially regarding Crete and Chania, are very strong and in any case such malicious actions should not affect the relations between the people of the two countries. We ask you to take direct action on this issue.”