Moscow is a city of suspended demand
“Moscow – is a city of suspended demand”, - said Sergey Shpilko, the head of Moscow City Committee for Tourism and Hotel Industry. At a conference “Modern tools of Russian territory branding” he clarified this statement using his recent report called “Establishment and promotion of Moscow brand as a tourist destination on domestic and foreign markets”.
Participants of various inquiries often express interest in visiting Moscow, but put off this idea for a better day, because the city seems to them dangerous, expensive and inhospitable. There are a number of negative myths in among would-be guests of Moscow. Thus, many of believe that the city is not only dangerous for foreigners, but for locals as well. However, the police statistics report only 24 crimes against foreign citizens in 2009. According to Mr. Shpilko, the crime rate is much higher in Paris, for example, and in other major tourist cities. Expensive hotels are another myth. In fact, there are a lot of 3* hotels and hostels for as little as €12-13 per day, which is not higher than in Europe. The third myth is that Moscow is traditionally considered a cold city, and no one here speaks English. But the youth speak foreign languages and English signs have already started to appear in the city. The bilingual signs are now being placed all over the city, thanks to the Tourism Committee.
Sergey Shpilko believes there is a problem with the accommodation of mixed groups and more than 50% of Moscow hotel capacity goes for business tourists. But, despite all the problems, the city’s great tourist potential was noted. The head of the Tourism Committee thinks that after the 2018 FIFA World Cup, held in the capital city, Moscow will probably become a tourist center with millions of tourist arrivals. Rebranding of the city is one of the necessary steps towards this aim. We need to create a new brand, an alternative to the current one, - said Mr. Shpilko. The capital image, which was formed in 90s, no longer reflects the reality. Demythologization is what we need now. The advertising campaign in Russian and international media, which is to start this autumn, urge to solve this problem.
The process of creating a new brand of Moscow is being held back by the absence of common vision of Russia’s tourism development on domestic and foreign travel markets. “We can’t look at the city promotion separately from that of the whole country. Certainly, we need to join hands with federal government bodies and work together”, - said the head of the Moscow Tourism Committee.
Besides, the city has other three outstanding issues, namely Russian visa, high cost of the international transportation and domestic logistics, in particular heavy traffic on the city’s roads.
As was said by Sergey Shpilko, 281 million roubles were allocated by the city for tourism development. Another 54 million roubles will be added, if the program of tourism and leisure industry development will be accepted by the city’s authorities. This program implies the rise in the number of foreign arrivals in Moscow airports from 4 to 6.8 million per year, 30% increase of hotel capacity and twice as much sales of travel-related services and goods.