Adventures in Unfortunate Place Names

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  08.07.09 | 2:39 PM ET

Fill in the blanks: Residents in F**king, Austria, are sick of tourists flocking for lewd photo-ops with the town’s signage, but across the border the folks in W**k, Germany, think F**king should learn to embrace the crude humor—and cash in. That’s what W**k’s tourism leaders have done: Said one W**k spokesperson, “There are W**k postcards on sale although many people prefer to take their own W**k holiday snaps standing beside Welcome to W**k signs.” And understandably so. I’ll leave the DIY jokes to less refined bloggers.

Tags: Tourism, Tres Loco, Europe, Austria, Germany, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


2 Comments for Adventures in Unfortunate Place Names

All Inclusive Resorts 08.10.09 | 2:36 AM ET

If a town doesn’t want to cash in on the obvious attention they get from having an odd name, then they should change the name of the town because it will never stop. 

With the tough economic times, I might try to get my town to change our name to something funny.  We could use some tourism money.

Pat Hartman 08.30.09 | 1:12 PM ET

Dear Eva Holland,

Thanks for this, which we had the pleasure of linking to from our article
http://kevindolgin.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/travel-writers-most-memorable-bummers/

Best of all possible regards,
Pat Hartman
News Editor, The Blog of Kevin Dolgin

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