It's more efficient and cost-effective to promote Siberian travel industrywhen you have all the resources united under one name. That is a strong belief of
the Head of the Olympia-Reisen-Sibir' company, Mr. Victor Dann, who is also one
of the founders and managers of the Siberia Project. Nine Siberian regions from
Omsk to Kamchatka
have united under this single brand in order to take part in major trade fairs throughout
2013.
“Four years ago we had just five people working at our booth, this year
at ITB in Berlin
we had 16,”
said Victor Dann in an interview to RATA-news. “They are the region's tourism officials,
businessmen, and representatives of the Novosibirsk Tolmachevo
Airport, which is the main
transport hub of the area. For the first time we presented Siberia
as one whole big territory. We prepared a tourist map showing different regions
of Siberia, means of transportation between them
and most interesting tourist sites”. The map, which was designed by an information
analytics agency STI, was in high demand at the trade fair in Berlin. All the 5,000 copies we had were gone
in a blink of an eye.
According to Mr. Dann, Siberia, despite
its enormous size, doesn't get too much attention when it is promoted from a booth
shared with other regions. A regular trade visitor doesn't have much idea of how
regions are located in Russia.
Most of them just imagine a vast, never ending land. So, by creating a recognizable
and user-friendly brand, the region can get through to them. “Such a trade visitor
has no idea of Novosibirsk or Krasnoyarsk regions. So we based our brand on
a well-known and popular name – Siberia. And we
are pointing up that this is not Moscow,
Saint-Petersburg, the Golden Ring or the Urals. This is a different and a unique
part of the vast Russian territory”, said Victor Dann.
Mr. Sergey Tikhomirov, the Director of Foreign Ties and Tourism Department
of the trans-regional association Siberian Agreement, says that foreign tourists,
who have come so far in their exploration of Russia, are usually keen on discovering
more than one region. “This opinion of ours is confirmed by our overseas partners:
when we come forth with a recognizable macro region (Siberia, in our case) we give
our eventual partners and customers a starting point on their way to a particular
area and further to a particular operator offering a particular itinerary”, he explained
to RATA-news.
At the trade fair, the tourists could go from finding out about Siberia to choosing a specific tour right there and then.
“Inside this umbrella-brand we are promoting regions as well as travel destinations.
So accents in our macro region advertising policy should give the travel industry
a good idea which products to offer,” says Mr. Evgeny Pyankov, the Deputy Minister
of Sport, Tourism and Youth politics of Krasnoyarsk Region and one of those behind
the Siberia's joint promotion campaign. Unlike many others, the project does not
tell about the region's potential, but rather focuses on existing destinations.
Tour operators were also present at the Siberian booth (Krasnoyarsk alone was represented by four companies)
with actual packages on sale, so the visitors could see the whole picture.
Participants of the project decided that united promotion is less expensive
and more effective. “Right now we have a ton of incoming calls and e-mails,” – says
Victor Dann. “Sometimes we even can't cope with all the queries we get. That means
we did a good job last year, as marketing effects of trade fairs are usually a little
delayed”. A huge mass of people passed through the Siberian stand in Berlin – and that is our
key to the future. The expert believes that today's global market is facing a unique
situation: America and Europe
are known to most tourists, Africa is still not
safe, and the business is looking for new destinations and experiences to offer
to their clients. And that's where Russia's less known territories come
in. So the question of promotion is of utmost importance during this stage. Furthermore,
advertising should be aimed not solely at western markets, but also at Asian tourists,
who are on the ascent now and are showing sufficient interest in Siberia.
“The international inbound flow to the region is growing steadily. And
even though the numbers are not that high, 2-2.5 thousand every year, the tendency
is indicative,” said Evgeniy Pyankov. “The work will be even more successful if
we have all the regions involved, and if we can offer a full advertisement campaign
with fam-trips, field workshops and other interesting activities”.
Management of the Tolmachevo airport in Novosibirsk decided to support the regional travel
industry on their joint stand. “The positioning of the whole region is very important
in our quest of attracting new airlines and creating new routes,” said Mr. Grigory
Pomerantsev, the Business Manager of the Tolmachevo. “When we meet with airlines
representatives and offer them to fly to Novosibirsk,
they often ask what is the destination all about, what possibilities does it open?
The Tolmachevo is a transfer hub in the center of a huge continent, from which many
Siberian regions are easily accessible. We feel that supporting our travel industry
partners is very important, seeing how we have become part of that industry."
The facilitators of the Siberia Project are planning to take part in
trade fairs in China, Japan, Singapore
and London in 2013, as well as in USA and Madrid
in 2014. Yet, not everyone in the region is ready to work hand in hand with their
neighbors. The Altai region, for instance, every year presents a huge stand of its
own at ITB and other trade fairs. Buryatia and the Irkutsk Region have been planning
to come up with a joint promotion campaign under the Baikal brand. And many regional
tour operators are refusing to take part in the promotion, because modern means
of sales and communication allow them to discard advertising without losing their
income. “The question of united advertising of the region under the Siberia brand has been discussed for some time in the Coordination
Committee of our association. The last discussion was about a month and a half ago.
And yet again we asked the regions if they wanted such promotion of not. And everyone
agreed that they did need it. However not everyone is actually taking part.”
