“There are no bears on the streets!” - an advertisement of Petersburg in Europe.

Petersburg began to be advertised as a tourist center. The city government launched an advertising campaign worth € 1 million in three European cities. Experts and market participants believe that much more should be spent on promoting St. Petersburg.
In December, the first mass advertising campaign in the history of St. Petersburg began, promoting the city abroad as a tourist center. It takes place under the slogan "No bears, just beauties". The posters on the background of the main attractions of the city depicts a bear. More than 300 billboards are located at airports and on the streets of London, Amsterdam and Paris, said the head of the St. Petersburg administration's tourism department, Marianna Ordzhonikidze.
The campaign, which was organized by the City Marketing Agency, Happiness Corporation and the Volga Volga design bureau, will last until the end of December and will cost about 1 million euros, she said. According to her, about half of these funds allocated the city budget, the rest was provided by the company - in particular, tour operators working for reception. Ordzhonikidze refused to call them. None of the six operators polled by Vedomosti admitted that he had participated in the campaign.

ADVERTISING POSTERS!

This is the first advertising campaign promoting the tourist potential of a Russian city abroad, says the PCT press secretary Irina Tyurina. Until now, neither Russia nor the largest tourist centers - Moscow and St. Petersburg - have taken such actions. “Russian regions, organizations and companies participated in exhibitions, which are designed for professionals, and from time to time organized press tours for journalists to Russia. But these methods are not as effective as direct advertising, ”she says.
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Next year, the St. Petersburg government is going to repeat the campaign, adding to the list of cities in Frankfurt and Tokyo, Ordzhonikidze said.

City officials have long been concerned about the problem of increasing tourist traffic. Tourism creates 10% of GRP and provides 5% of St. Petersburg tax revenues. In 2004, the administration of St. Petersburg ordered the development of the “Program for the Development of St. Petersburg as a Tourist Center” by the American Boston Consulting Group, the research cost 15 million rubles, and was funded by the Ministry of Economic Development. According to the most optimistic forecast of American consultants, by 2010, 5.3 million tourists should visit St. Petersburg annually. To this end, consultants advise, in particular, to reduce the cost of air travel, build more hotels, ease the visa regime and enhance the safety of tourists.

Experts and market participants are happy that Smolny has launched an advertising campaign, but they believe that 1 million euros is too little to promote St. Petersburg.

The campaign should be more ambitious, says an expert on marketing for the EU project “Development of tourism in the North-West region of Russia” Alexander Gorokhov. It can attract neighboring regions such as Pskov and Novgorod, which are also rich in attractions and may be of interest to foreigners.

“Of course, [1 million euros] is not enough. In addition, the idea to place shields at airports is unsuccessful. The people who see them have already decided where to fly, ”says the manager of the Shelfort Hotel, Alexey Musakin. However, even such an advertising campaign can improve the situation with the attendance of St. Petersburg, provided that it will be held constantly, said Musakin.

The head of Intourist department Nikolay Kokora agrees with him. He says that the budget of Intourist for the promotion of various Russian directions is $ 700,000. And the budget of the whole region for these purposes should be incomparably greater, the manager says.

And the president of the host company Academservice, Leonid Isakovich, is convinced that the money spent on the campaign has been thrown to the wind. “Every year, a tourist center like St. Petersburg needs to spend several tens of millions of euros on marketing. Otherwise, no one will notice this advertisement, ”he exclaims.

WHO IS BIGGER

According to the World Tourism Organization, in 2005, Greece allocated most of all for the promotion of national tourism product - 121.7 million euros. The second place is occupied by Mexico, which spent 119.9 million euros. Spain invested 96.2 million euros in advertising and marketing, Malaysia - 94.8 million euros, Australia - 91.7 million euros, Hong Kong - 78.6 million euros and the United Kingdom - 71.1 million euros. Russia allocated about 3 million euros last year to promote its tourism opportunities.

Sources:
ADME.RU
Vedomosti