Argentinians give a thumbs-up to St. Petersburg
From the ninth to the twelfth of September the North-Western regional branch of Russia's union of the tourism industry hosted a TV crew from a popular Argentinian travel show – El Resto del Mundo, visiting St. Petersburg. The guests from Latin America seemed quite impressed by the city's tourism potential but recommended it to promote its brand more on foreign markets.
The so-called Petersburg Voyage – White Days project is being carried out by Russia's union of the tourism industry since 2003. It's a unique chance for foreign journalists to see Russia's tourism capital from a new perspective and tell about it to their readers and viewers. «Since the start of the project and throughout these years we and our partners have managed to carry out over fifty tours for journalists from various parts of the globe. As a result of these trips, foreign media has published over a hundred written stories about St. Petersburg, dozens of radio and TV reports and five documentaries» - says the head of the union's North-Western branch, Sergey Korneyev. According to him, one of the key goals of the project is to show to foreign viewers, listeners and readers that high season is far from the only good time to visit St. Petersburg.
The visa-free regime between Russia and Argentine has taken down many barriers which used to hold back an inflow of tourists from this Latin American country, inlcuding the crew of one of Argentine's largest TV stations – Canal 13 – who've visited St. Petersburg. Showing life in Russia's two capitals from different perspectives is one of the goals of El Resto del Mundo (a clever word compilation which can be translated both as «the rest of the world» or «global vacation» (rest). The programme is similar to a Russian show by Dmitry Krylov but with a Latin American taste. It's not only watched in Argentine, but in other densely-populated South American states – Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and more. Through out the eight years that it's been on air, the show's crew has visited more than sixty countries, interesting to Argentinians.
During their two-day stay in St. Petersburg, the crew visited the city's main museums, took a ride in the metro and went to the Kuznechny market. They also had a taste of Russian traditional cuisine in restaurants like Russian Ryumochnaya and Fish House. «Filming Moscow and St. Petersburg from different perspectives was the idea from the very beginning, - says El Resto del Mundo's chief producer Hernan Valenzuela. – We want to show Moscow from the political point of view, while St. Petersburg as the center of Russian culture and tourism. But even with St. Petersburg itself - we didn't want to show only its imperial, flamboyant and museum sides, but the everyday pastime of its residents, transmit the feeling on the city's streets».
As it turned out, the guests from the southern hemisphere already knew quite a lot about Russia before coming to the Northern capital. Along with the Ukrainian and Croatian there's also a large Russian immigrant community in Argentine, including some families who came even before the Bolshevik revolution. «It's not a short journey to Russia, but Argentinians are ready to make the trip to St. Petersburg to see the beauty it offers, - says the show's presenter and model Ivan de Pineda. – We now have visa free relations and that significantly eases life for many potential tourists».
According to the famous Argentinian TV presenter, the most important thing that St. Petersburg currently needs is to work on its brand and promote it through international media. He reminded that even when Colombia's reputation was significantly suffering because of drug trafficking, the authorities invested good money in a TV program about the country's cities and brokered a deal with the FOX channel in the U.S. to broadcast this show, the investments paid off very quickly because of a sharp increase of tourists and an inflow of foreign funds.
The Argentinian guests said St. Petersburg made the impression of a completely European city, while its residents weren't very much different from people living in cities like Berlin. They added that such wide-spread stereotypes and rumors about «brutal Russians who drink vodka for breakfast» simply didn't work there.
«St. Petersburg's tourism society has to do everything in its power in order to bring the city and its tourism products to markets in the southern hemisphere. South Americans know about Russia, yet at the same time we are still perceived as a fresh, exotic and very attractive destination. Moreover, the holiday season in the southern hemisphere coincides with our fall and winter. An increase of tourists from these countries would give them the chance to enjoy St. Petersburg at a new, unhacked time and, on the other hand, would allow the city's tourism industry to balance the amount of guests during different seasons», - says Sergey Korneyev.
The program about Russia will be aired on Argentinian TV in late October – early November 2011.
The North-Western branch of Russia's union of the tourism industry would like to thank the Mir («World») tourist company, the Astoria hotel, the state Hermitage Museum, Russian Museum, Tsarskoye Selo open air museum, restaurants Russkaya Ryumochnaya (“ryumochnaya” is a traditional Russian vodka bar) and Fish House, as well as the St. Petersburg Metro for helping organize the Argentinian TV crew's visit.