Accidental Blogger

Grass is greener on the other side of the fence. For one Nepalese airline employee, the mountain is more majestic on the other side of the world.

In a baffling (and embarrassing) move, the scenic country of Nepal which is located in the foothills of the spectacular Himalayas, publicly misrepresented its natural environments. In a promotional brochure for tourism, entitled "Have You Seen Nepal?" the Royal Nepal Airlines depicted a photo of Machu Picchu as a must see Nepalese destination. The airlines has apologised and blamed a careless employee for the faux pas. I wonder how the employee made this blunder and why no one else caught the mistake. Was it hard to find suitably impressive photos of the numerous mountain peaks surrounding Nepal? Or was the neighboring Mount Everest not eminent enough for this imaginative employee? 

[Story via Recurring Decimals]

(View of Mount Everest from Nepal)

(Machu Picchu in Peru)

LIMA (Reuters) – Royal Nepal Airlines has apologized to Peru after mistakenly using a photo of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu to promote tourism in Nepal.

Peru’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday the flagship carrier of the Himalayan kingdom, about half way around the world from the Andean country, had put the picture of Peru’s tourism icon, Machu Picchu, on a poster under a slogan "Have you seen Nepal?"

Peruvian mountaineer Ernesto Malaga, who was visiting India last month, noticed the blunder on a poster hanging on a wall in the airline’s office in New Delhi. Peruvian authorities requested explanations from the airline via the embassy.

"The airline … offered apologies to Peru for using the picture of the Machu Picchu Sanctuary on a poster to promote their country and assured that the lamentable error has been corrected," the statement said. "As a consequence, the Nepalese airline fired an employee in the rank of a manager … It is concluded that it was an isolated error," it added.

From a distance, some mountain temples in the Himalayas could be mistaken for Incan ruins, which also cling to steep slopes.

Peru’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday the flagship carrier of the Himalayan kingdom, about half way around the world from the Andean country, had put the picture of Peru’s tourism icon, Machu Picchu, on a poster under a slogan "Have you seen Nepal?"

Peruvian mountaineer Ernesto Malaga, who was visiting India last month, noticed the blunder on a poster hanging on a wall in the airline’s office in New Delhi. Peruvian authorities requested explanations from the airline via the embassy.

"The airline … offered apologies to Peru for using the picture of the Machu Picchu Sanctuary on a poster to promote their country and assured that the lamentable error has been corrected," the statement said.

"As a consequence, the Nepalese airline fired an employee in the rank of a manager … It is concluded that it was an isolated error," it added.

From a distance, some mountain temples in the Himalayas could be mistaken for Incan ruins, which also cling to steep slopes. Nepal is actively promoting tourism in the hope that foreigners will return in big numbers to visit its snow-capped mountains and ancient temples after a long Maoist revolt.