A Swede in Aberdeen
17 April 2014
A Swede in Aberdeen. Why, you might think?
My name is Pia Johnsson and I’m a student at Travel Education Centre in Stockholm. Sweden is a country that is famous for its industry: iron, forestry, music, but now the tourist industry grows rapidly. There is a demand for people who can take care of the travellers that will visit the land in the north. The Swedish government have put money into that project that I am now part of which makes me feel both proud and excited.
A part of the education is to do an internship abroad to get the knowledge how other countries work with their incoming tourism (inbound tourism). Most of my fellow students went to southern Europe and countries like Spain and Italy, while others like me looked for countries more like ours, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Scotland. Though there are similarities we all have different specialities that makes us unique. Where Sweden has its archipelago, the big four (wolf, bear, wolverine, lynx), reindeers and its Icehotel. Scotland has something complete different with her castles, whisky, golf and people (you are fantastic!).
Of course there is more that separate our countries than that, but there are also more that bounds us together. I hope to write more about that during my stay here. The VisitAberdeenshire team has welcomed me with great warmth and hopefully we will both benefit until I go back to Sweden in the end of May.
If you like to see what it’s like for a Scottish family in Sweden I recommend http://www.scotsinsweden.eu/
På återseende (until next time)
Pia