Nothing says “Please bring your disposable income and attitudes about customer service to our country” like a good old-fashioned travel slogan, which is presumably why so many tourism-hungry nations have them. But a travel slogan isn’t just an ad-pitch for over-priced hostels or a billion random castles with a billion random castle gift shops: It’s also a people’s expression of their own self-image, as channeled through a couple of over-paid ad execs and a committee of well-meaning civil servants.
Which might explain the unintentional hilarity of this map, put together by the blog writers for travel booker FamilyBreakFinder, organizing all the world’s travel slogans into a single spot. Some are pleasantly straightforward: Chile, for instance, just wants you to know that “All Are Welcome,” while “Bolivia Awaits You” is pretty neutral, too. But some of these countries are clearly trying too hard: we’re looking at U, Ukraine (“It’s All About U”), Colombia (“Colombia is magical realism”), or Mongolia (“Go Nomadic”). And some are just plain weird. East Timor is way too hyped on its own status as the first country to be founded this century (“Being first has its rewards”), for example, and we’re not sure what to make of “Enjoy Latvia slowly.” But at least most of these slogans couldn’t be substituted for their people’s policy on eating potato chips and/or consuming natural resources, which is more than we can say for the U.S. (“All within your reach.”)