I must confess, I have a morbid fascination to see what happens next on this one.
Our very own Kings of Accidental Tourism have spent no less than two years on a project to produce the first joint brochure for the island of Hvar, with the Project Leader very much in charge. With no less than five tourist board directors involved, that is a significant amount of brain power.
You would think…
As we explained recently, Hvar has a new slogan and brand – Island of Hvar – Genuine Hedonism.
I know – that is what I thought. I searched for the word ‘Hedonism’ on Google images – the image above is what I found. After two years of brainstorming from five tourist board directors, this is the end result for our little Dalmatian piece of UNESCO heaven – we are to be branded as a European equivalent of Jamaica’s Hedonism resort (where ANYTHING goes).
There is no need to repeat how shocking the translation is (but don’t worry, the Project Leader had all under control). If only she had managed to spell the name of the island wrong – IBIZA perhaps. But no. Now we are stuck with 10,000 copies of badly translated brochures inviting guests to get naked, get drunk and get on doing it.
In the two years it took to put this wonderful promotional brochure of the island with the most UNESCO heritage in the world, which will now be officially promoted as a Sodom and Gomorrah (check the reactions of internationals responding with their first impressions of the new slogan – Genuine Hedonism). In that time, the Sucuraj Tourist Board could perhaps have found the time to translate their website into English for… tourists, the Stari Grad Tourist Board could have perhaps set their alarm clock for 2016 – the 2400-year anniversary of the town, the (former) Jelsa Tourist Board director could possibly have found a minute to fill in his blank and beautifully white Telepathy Tourism event page with at least some information for tourists about what to do in his town, and the ever-so-busy Hvar Town Tourist Board could possibly have been adding some FAQ content to its pristine telepathy FAQ page.
But no. The collective genius of five tourist board directors was required for the Genuine Hedonism Project.
I have spoken to a couple of people who were involved in the project. They were shocked at the poor translation (All Hail Our Beloved Project Leader, You Know Best), and once it was pointed out how hedonism – genuine or fake – is perceived in the international arena (Google images do not lie), the reaction was one of horror.
So here we are. Our Project Leader never makes mistakes, so back to the morbid fascination at the top of this article. Will Hvar’s Kings of Accidental Tourism really proceed with the distribution of this disaster, as reported by national media tonight?
And much more interestingly, will anyone ever be held accountable?
