July 23, 2018
In an article titled “In First Lady’s Hometown in Slovenia, the Business Is Melania”, Patrick Kingsley, an international correspondent for The New York Times, based in Turkey, looks at some of the ways enterprising residents of the small town by the Sava are seeking to capitalise on the name of it’s most famous daughter, Melanija Knavs, now better known as Melania Trump.
While the article starts with a list of products that are unofficially associated with the First Lady – “Melania cake. Melania cream. Melania wine. Melania tea. Melania slippers. Melania salami. Melania chocolate-coated apple slices” – it goes on to explore the wider economic effects of the recent boost in publicity for the town of around 5,000 souls that was previously best known for it’s castle, with tourist traffic having risen by 15% over the last three years.
However, as Kingsley notes, some locals are getting a little tired of the relentless focus on Ms Trump, with the head of the local tourist board insisting on talking about the other reasons to visit the town, while Mia Podlesnik, a waitress who presumably served the writer, offered this comment on the scandal-plagued President’s wife: “Marrying someone — I don’t think that’s really an accomplishment.”
You can read the full article here, and if you find it behind a paywall then just open the link in an incognito window. If you’d like to learn more about the book it mentions, Melania Trump: The Slovenian Side of the Story, then you can read our interview with the author, Sandi Gorišek, here, while you can get a free copy on Amazon here (US site, but available in all regional variations) or a free audiobook version here.
