Bottles of fresh air from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales are being marketed as the perfect gift for homesick Britons living overseas this Christmas.
Relocation website My Baggage is offering fresh air bottled from the four home nations for £25 each and claim the bottles are already being snapped up by families with loved ones living abroad – in a bid to remind them of home and possibly tempt them back to our shores.
The company is also offering special limited edition bottles featuring air captured on the London Underground and air from the inside of a busy Norfolk fish and chip shop.
Each 500ml of air comes with a cork stopper so the owners can open for a moment, take a breath and quickly close again, allowing many weeks or even months of use.
My Baggage is also willing to fulfil special customer requests by bottling air from any UK location, and have already fulfilled an order of air from the misty summit of Snowdonia for a homesick Welshman living down under.
The company, which helps thousands of Britons to relocate to other countries each year, claims their bottled air offers Brits living overseas the chance to reconnect with home by purchasing authentic UK air to remind them of home.
They decided to launch their bottled air range following research which linked our sense of smell to emotional memories.
They said that while many UK residents hanker after a new exciting life in another country relocating leaves some pining for home.
The hope is that a bottle of air from one of our home nations will ease homesickness and make settling into a new country that much easier.
But they also said they were seeing orders for the bottles as Christmas gifts from parents keen to tempt their sons and daughters back to the UK.
A spokesman said: “Many Brits have a dream of moving abroad and the exciting thing about our work at My Baggage is that we help make those dreams come true.
“But we know from our customer feedback that a small but significant number of Britons who move abroad do experience homesickness.
“We wanted to help them reconnect with home and we know from published research that our sense of smell is very evocative when it comes to emotions.
“By allowing recipients to take a deep breath of the air from their home country we’re hoping to ease homesickness and help them settle into their new life, wherever that may be.
“At the moment the majority of orders are coming from parents and loved ones of Brits who have moved abroad. A bottle of fresh air from home is the perfect gift for a family member who is living overseas – and it might even entice them back home.
“The smells Britons miss might surprise some. Orders for the fish and chip shop air have been strong while the London Underground air is one of our best sellers and seems to be popular with ex-commuters who perhaps want to remind themselves of what they’re missing.”
My Baggage have created a special product page on their website where visitors can find out all about the air. Please visit: https://www.mybaggage.com/shipping/air/