Strasbourg to bring Christmas to Moscow
Every December since 1570 Strasbourg – the capital of Alsace – hosts Christmas Fairs. For five weeks the city's squares get filled up with trading rows, offering traditional Christmas tree decorations, a cup or two of mulled wine with a piece of pie. At this time Strasbourg becomes the Christmas capital of Europe and welcomes 2 million visitors in a just one month. In order to show the Russians what the true Christmas Fair is about, the Strasbourg team is coming to Moscow on European Christmas eve.
As was told by Strasbourg's Vice Mayor for Tourism, Trade and Crafts Mr. Jean-Jacques Gsell, the city had been appointed a Christmas capital of Europe in 1992. “Ever since that time we have been trying to live up to this rank. Today we have not just one, but 12 fairs in the city; on one of the city's central squares a 300-meter-high Christmas tree is placed – the tallest in the world. “Even though France already receives the highest number of tourists in the world, we still want to attract more visitors. We are bringing a piece of Strasbourg to Moscow, so that the Muscovites would wish to visit our city. We have already done that in Tokyo in 2010 and it resulted in a 56% increase in the number of visitors from Japan. And we do hope to repeat our success in Moscow” – said Jean-Jacques Gsell.
The fair will go off from December 24 to January 7 on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow city center. 20 French chalets will be erected in front of Moskva Hotel, where the guests will be able to buy souvenirs and Alsace's traditional products as well as to try regional delicacies - tarte flambee, foie gras, Strasbourg sausages and mulled wine. Christmas tree decorations that are traditionally produced at small family-run workshops will also be brought to Moscow. The cost of the souvenirs will start from 100 roubles. The official opening ceremony on December 23 will be attended by mayors of Moscow and Strasbourg.
Mr. Gsell pointed out that not only will the fair at Manezhnaya square attract the Muscovites but also Russian and overseas tourists visiting the capital city. He also mentioned his city's plans to organize similar festivals in New York City and Rio de Janeiro.
The head of Strasbourg Tourist Office Mr. Patrice Jenni revealed that every year Strasbourg receives about 40 thousand Russian tourists, who stay in hotels for at least one night. But the number of one-day visitors reaches 250 thousand; for example, 90% of Russians spending their holidays in near-by Baden-Baden in Germany come to Strasbourg as well. “You can hear Russian language all over the place. And owners of local restaurants ask us to translate their menus into Russian. This means that the number of Russian tourists is growing. Besides that, Strasbourg has many Russian diplomats and officials, who come on various businesses” – he stressed out. For several years, Transaero Airline had been operating a direct flight from Moscow to Strasbourg, but it was cancelled due to insufficient seat load. However, Mr. Jenni says, it's still quite easy to get to the city, as one of Europe's largest hubs – Frankfurt – lies just a 1.5-hour drive away from the capital of Alsace. It can also be reached in just 2 hours by a high-speed TGV train from Paris.
In Strasbourg itself the Christmas Fair is going to take course from November 24 to December 31, 2012.