The spelling is almost the same, but the difference couldn’t be greater. The confusion about the correct spelling is driving the local tourism director of the Swedish province insane.
Norwegian soccer player or Swedish province? At least the spelling is confusing.
The province of Halland is located in southwest Sweden. The region on the Kattegat coast is quiet and a popular place to live for people who work and commute to the nearby metropolis of Gothenburg. The province is also very popular with tourists. For example, because of the Smaland in the east of the region, so well known from the Lindgren books.
The local tourism authority, Visit Halland, advertises the tranquility and nature as a “coastal paradise for foodies and nature lovers”. She calls on travelers from all over the world to visit the “Swedish Riviera”. But the tourism authority has a problem.
Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian footballer has recently joined English football club Manchester City and is arguably on the way to becoming the best striker in the world. However, the player not only inspires on the pitch, but also on social networks. Haaland has over 20 million followers on Instagram alone. But there seems to be confusion among fans about how to spell his name correctly. They add the hashtag #Haaland to pictures of the football player, but far too often also #Halland.
This becomes a nuisance for the tourism authority. If you look at pictures of the region on the Internet, you will see one thing above all instead of coastlines, forests and beaches: Erling Haaland in a football shirt. «We are Halland. He’s Haaland!” wrote the director of the local tourism authority, Jimmy Sandberg, in an open letter that he published on the Internet. “To our despair, all our efforts to promote Halland are simply being thwarted as the footballer’s popularity combined with the spelling error completely smothers our online presence.”
In an interview with the BBC, the director of tourism asked, almost in desperation, that in future posts on Facebook and Instagram should be spelled correctly, so that you could also see pictures of your region on Google. The search engine is currently completely overloaded with all the “wrong” images.
Otherwise, Sandberg warned jokingly, he feared that his province would become something like a forgotten Atlantis. “A place that only exists in stories and historical writings, but not in pictures.” To avoid this, Erling Haaland is happy to be invited to a holiday in Halland. He would feel at home here, said the director of tourism and asked: “See you next summer in Halland, Haaland?”