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    Nick Night/Unsplash
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This is interesting. In a summer of overtourism, a viral Oslo travel advert with nearly 20 million views is turning the tables on what travellers want.

It's hardly a traditional start to a tourism advertisement: "I wouldn't come here to be honest," says an unimpressed resident of Oslo.

The narrator, a 31-year-old man named Halfdan, then introduces viewers to Norway's capital, and complains about its lack of pretension, its easily accessible art like Edvard Munch's The Scream ("Not exactly the Mona Lisa," he notes) and its accessibility.

All the while, he strolls through a tranquil cityscape with no queues, crowds or selfie-snappers in sight.

"You can just walk from one side of town to the other in, like, 30 minutes," Halfdan grouses. "Is it even a city?"

The video's release comes as a growing group of travellers are beginning to turn away from well-worn tourist paths.

No longer, it seems, do they want to join throngs of visitors to see the same landmarks and take the same pictures to show their friends on social media - just check out the crowd on any day at Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain!

The ad is all about embracing a new travel trend called "life-seeing instead of sightseeing”.

Heard of it?

 

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