Sunday, July 5, 2015

'How to' for the multi-cultural society: Railway posts 'how-to' toilet signs for tourists from Southeast Asia and the Middle East

(Switzerland) Fed up with having to clean up messes in the public toilets, the operators of the Mount Rigi cogwheel railway in central Switzerland have installed pictogram signs showing the right and wrong way to use the facilities as part of an information campaign.

The pictograms instruct users to sit on toilet seats rather than to squat on them and to discard used toilet paper in the lavatory rather than in the waste bin.

“It happens that guests mount on the toilet seats to do their business — sometimes they don’t know where to put the (toilet) paper,” Roger Joss, director of marketing for the Rigi railway, told 20 Minuten newspaper.

The signs, installed in a bid to improve cleanliness, appear to be targeted at tourists from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

“Tourists from the Gulf region or Asian countries are not very aware of our way of living,” Marcel Furer, head of the regional tourist office, told 20 Minuten.

“It’s happened that people relieve themselves in the shower rather than in the toilet,” Furer said.

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