Chewing bulbs: Flores Touristia campaign warns flower garden visitors

“Tourist proof” tulips? Image: Visit Netherlands, NBTC

The Dutch tourism board has released a video warning tourists planning to stomp a field of flowers for the perfect Instagram photo that the new bulbs can bite.

“The Netherlands is world-famous for its flowers and welcomes millions of tourists every year,” says Professor Eric Kummering of the National Institute of Floral Sciences in a video. “Unfortunately, when many tourists step into flower fields to get the perfect picture, they destroy the flowers and bulbs. , is developing more resistant, high-quality flower seeds.

The video, released on April 1, shows the Dutch crossbreeding the famous Dutch flower with the Brazilian rubber tree, known for its flexibility, and the Philippine mangrove with a very strong root, the Stinkhorn fungus. It claims to emit a “sharp and foul odor”. When threatened, and the “famous carnivorous plant” created the human-resistant Flores Turistia. So it warns: “Enjoy our flowers, but keep your distance: they bite!”

We are proud to present the ultimate Dutch flower. # Flores TouristSee for yourself how our scientists worked miracles and created the ‘Human Evidence Tulip’ 🌷👀 pic.twitter.com/anSB8CNKAW

— Visit Holland (@Visit_NL) March 31, 2023

April flowers

Holland Marketing’s Simone Sagi has confirmed that the video is an April Fool’s joke, but has a serious message. “It’s about shedding light on responsible and sustainable tourism,” she told Dutch News.

“Of course, the tulip fields are a real sight and very attractive, but keep in mind that this is someone’s business. Please do not go to the fields because of the possibility.

‘There are places where you can pick the flowers yourself, and there are lesser-known areas as well as designated spots for taking selfies among the flowers. Flevoland not the municipality of Lisse, but the famous Keukenhof Flower garden.

The board has warned of one cultivator bulb damage in 2019. banner Encourage tourists to watch their step. In 2020, the mayor of Hillegom, in the heart of the bulb-growing region, urged people to avoid visiting as roads were closed.

By last year, the Dutch Bulb Growers Association caveat People stay away from fields, citing the risk of spreading the virus from one plant to another. More than one million people visited Keukenhof last year, but the economic impact of the damage caused and the number of tourists trampling the flowers has not been quantified.

humor

But the April Fool’s video is an attempt to get the message across in a lighthearted way. “Everything related to TikTok and Instagram has become a phenomenon all over the world. Every year we see photos of flower gardens and attract people to create beautiful backdrops,” he added Sagi.

“If you can make something humorous, you’re more likely to get your message across. There’s something scientific going on here about disease. Imagine there really are tulips that don’t break! But. Tulips are really fragile.

A plea for people to look after their manners (and flowers) is aimed at tourists from all over the world, with the city of Amsterdam this week urging a rowdy young man in the UK to “away‘.

In another version, created by Arjen Lubach in comics, tourists who intend to cause “trouble”typhus fever‘.