Many Americans, including myself, have a romantic notion of Europe being an amazing and an interesting place. As a group, we are also really into magic tricks. So, what did Sweden do to help attract people to it's most bustling city, Stockholm? Combine magic and information!
Charlie Caper, a magician, recently made the best tourism video ever on Stockholm's own YouTube page . Forget what you know about those old boring travel videos. I think the Swedes are on to something with this.
Caper begins discussing how Stockhom is Europe's fastest growing city and delves right into some sweet magic. He talks about a study done by Price Waterhouse Cooper, a professional services firm, that compared twenty seven European cities that are at the center of the general European economy. The entire time, he's shuffling a deck of cards and suddenly starts pulling all aces when describing where Stockholm comes in first place.
The tricks, I mean illusions , keep getting even cooler. Caper pulls a tiny subway car out from behind cards in his hand when talking about culture and art in Stockholm. Did you know Stockholm has 760 km of bike trails? I didn't until Caper told me and then pulled a 7,6 and a 10 out of his randomly shuffled deck. My favorite illusion may have been when he pulled a tiny shot glass of water out from behind the cards when talking about how safe the drinking water is in Stockholm. Apparently, you can drink right out of their rivers, something I would not recommend here in the United States .
Sweden and Stockholm also boast excellent air quality and just by living there, you can expect to add two years to your life. They also recycle about 99% of all household trash, which is probably why the city is known as the green capitol of Europe, according to Caper. After dishing out these awesome facts, he turns a red card into a green card with just a flick of his thumb. Stockholm also is an amazing technology hub and sounds like it has great Wi-Fi. Your favorite websites and services like Skype and Spotify got their start in Stockholm. Oh and Stockholm also has free universities as shown by Caper making an entire card disappear into his hand.
Caper does an awesome job of making a lot of information easy to understand and a whole lot of fun to listen to. Maybe cities in the United States should get on board with more creative ways to show off their awesome features. My personal favorite “tourism,” video is one from bishopvids on YouTube for Cleveland, an old post college hang out of mine. Hey, at least it's honest.
