" Made Local " Is The Not Easy To Find.

Label Hunting becomes a new sport.

Be honest, when you are on holiday your purse strings are loosened and relaxed. Almost unrecognizable from your normal everyday spending habit. Gosh, it even starts at the airport. Who hasn't heard this : " Can you believe that I had to pay a fortune for a Coca Cola, when I could buy a whole case at home for the same price ? "

On holiday we tend to hone in on anything that looks cute and different.
" Oh look, isn't that cute " or
" Oh, this is perfect as a souvenir for ...". We all do it. In fact sometimes we tend to spend most of our holiday looking to find the perfect gift, driving our spouse mad with impatience:
" You just saw this in the other shop. Why don't you just buy the stupid thing ! " or
" For goodness sake, they don't need this. Let's go ! "

Tourist shops ( or knick knack central ) do make a huge effort to tempt us. The displays almost invite you to touch, feel and voila, buy. But the one thing that is important, is that it is an item that is made local. It should have this invisible yet obvious label, saying made in " wherever you are now ". Think Switzerland & chocolate, France & wine, Africa & woven baskets, Burgenland & Pumpkin-seed oil etc.

But this seems to be like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack. Have you ever turned the perfect item around in your hand, and notice the the little sign saying " made in anywhere but here " ? Annoying, isn't it. Then and there you know that it is most likely sold all over the world, even in your own country. How would your friends and family know that you actually bought your souvenir abroad and not just around the corner.

All this should be fantastic and almost liberating news for tourist shops. When you mostly sell locally produced goods it streamlines everything. No need to keep those enormous stock levels. Think how much money you would save, with the added bonus that tourists would be more decisive when they shop. I mean, it takes much less time to decide what to buy when the choice is whittled down from hundreds to around twenty.

Isn't it ironic that most of the time we want to show visitors / tourists that we are sophisticated and part of the global lifestyle. Yet what they are yearning and searching for is that unusual and often elusive local flavour. Well, here in Burgenland we make the most glorious wines and of course the fabulous Pumpkin Seed Oil...!

Biggi