"Since both its national products, snow and chocolate, melt, the cuckoo clock was invented solely in order to give tourists something solid to remember it by"

This quote by Alan Coren is an amusing way of mentioning the lack of concrete items that Switzerland has to provide tourists. He is indicating that since the two most renowned items of Switzerland, snow and chocolate, are both intangible, the Swiss needed to develop something solid for travelers to take house with them. The cuckoo clock was the answer to this problem, and it has become a symbol of Switzerland and a popular souvenir for tourists. This quote is a humorous method of pointing out the paradox of the situation, and it likewise functions as a pointer of the importance of tangible items in the tourism market. It is a suggestion that travelers require something to take home with them in order to remember their trip, and that keepsakes are a vital part of the tourist experience.