The Porthemmet Beach hoax occurred in late August 2007, when Jonty Haywood, from Truro, Cornwall, United Kingdom, invented a fictional place in Cornwall called Porthemmet Beach, the "best beach in Cornwall", to confuse tourists and amuse locals.[1][2] Emmet is in fact a Cornish dialect word for ant, and has come to be used in Cornwall as a derisory nickname for tourists,[3] or for people who have moved to Cornwall from other parts of the UK. Haywood created the hoax website porthemmet.com as well as erecting signs to the beach around the county that eventually led tourists out of Cornwall on the A30 road.[3]
Haywood was inspired by a similar hoax about an "Ice Bar" in a Scandinavian city.[4][5] The Porthemmet hoax sparked controversy over Cornwall's perceived hostility towards tourists despite their input into the Cornish economy. VisitCornwall, the Cornwall tourism board, criticised the hoax, while the chief executive of South West Tourism took the view that "any publicity is good publicity".[4]
The website features various words related to Cornwall, such as pasty or chough, and encourages tourists to use false pronunciations, causing potential embarrassment for anyone duped by the hoax. On the website, the name 'Porthemmet' is claimed to have been derived from the name "Port of Emmet", where Emmet is a Cornish saint, brother of the patron saint of Cornwall, Saint Piran.
In July 2008, a second set of signs appeared. News sources turned to Haywood, who jokingly attempted to blame Osama bin Laden for their appearance, before revealing his involvement by offering a prize to the first to discover all seven signs.[3]