STOCKHOLM — Ever felt like calling up a complete stranger in Sweden?
Now is your chance.
The Swedish Tourist Association has set up a hotline that lets callers worldwide “get connected to a random Swede.”
On its website, the nonprofit group says the idea is “to spark people’s curiosity about Sweden — our culture, nature and mindset. To help us do this, we have the people of Sweden.”
It’s not completely random. The Swedes who take the calls have volunteered by downloading an app. But they are not vetted or given any instructions about what to say.
“It’s like when Swedes travel the world. You don’t know who they’re going to talk to and what they’re going to say,” said Magnus Ling, the head of the Swedish Tourist Association.
About 3,000 people had dialed the “Swedish Number” by midday Thursday, a day after it was launched, and roughly the same number of Swedes had signed up to answer calls, Ling said.
The biggest number of incoming calls has come from Turkey. Ling said he didn’t know why, but thought it had to do with the initiative getting attention there both in traditional media and social media.
After signing up to test the service, this Stockholm-based AP reporter received four calls, about one an hour. The first was a woman from Turkey with limited English skills. The second hung up. The third was an engineering student from Britain. And the fourth was another journalist: Tim Nudd, creative editor at Adweek in New York.
“I just wanted to call and see how this whole thing works,” said Nudd.
He, too, was writing an article about it.
Ling said the feedback he had received on the hotline was almost all positive, though he said a small number of callers were just trying to hook up with Swedish women.
“I’ve heard of just one or two such calls,” Ling said.
