Conception of establishing the Centre for marketing St.Petersburg

CONCEPTION OF ESTABLISHING | CONCEPTION PRESENTATION | COMMENTS

Situation analysis

1. Saint Petersburg can benefit from its unique potential and no doubt is competitive in world travel market. The St.Petersburg's potential includes:
   • unique cultural, historical and architectural heritage;
   • cultural, business, sport and other events taking place in the city;
   • services that can be received in St.Petersburg or its suburbs (educational services, recreation and etc.);
   • good geographical position of the city.
   Besides, high cultural and intellectual level of Petersburgians, as well as save and calm geopolitical situation in the whole region contributes to the city's attractiveness for visitors from all over the world. So, St.Petersburg can be promoted as a centre of different kinds of tourism: cultural tourism, event tourism, ecological, aqua tourism, sports tourism, educational, business, congress and incentive tourism. Thanks to rapid growth of entertainment infrastructure in St.Petersburg (casinos, night clubs, fashionable restaurants), it can also be promoted as a city of elite tourism.
2. However, for certain reasons, including non-effective city marketing and poorly planned advertising campaign of the destination "Saint-Petersburg" in world travel market, tourists come to St.Petersburg mainly in the "high" season - May, June, July. While in the other seasons of the year the hotels stay half-empty and the city realizes its potential to only a small extent.
3. One of the reasons of St.Petersburg poor promotion - is the lack of regular co-operation in the sphere of city marketing between incoming tour-operators, hotels, museums, theatres and other organizations of the St.Petersburg tourist infrastructure.
So, to achieve the goal of effective marketing St.Petersburg to world travel market it is necessary to unite the efforts of all interested parties - organizations of both commercial and non-commercial sectors - on regular basis.

Organizational-and-legal form and principles of integration

With regard to the above mentioned, we offer to consider the possibility of establishing the Centre for marketing St.Petersburg (further - the Centre) in the form of noncommercial partnership based on the principles as follows:

1. Equality of founders.
2. Common property, the lack of shares.
3. "Open" work of the Centre.
4. Regular and purposeful work of the Centre.
5. The Centre should not set oneself to gain profit.
6. All decisions should be taken/approved by the Centre's Board of guardians (Board of directors), consisting of the founders' representatives.

Main tasks of the Centre

1. Promotion and advertising strategy development for St.Petersburg.
2. Promotion of the St.Petersburg's image as a big tourist centre of the Baltic region.
3. Widening the audience.
Not only pensioners and students, but also well-to-do people - those who enjoy yachting, casinos, etc., - as well as families (parents with children) should be stimulated to come to St.Petersburg to have active rest in the city and its suburb health resorts.
4. Search of new markets.
Marketing the destination "the Russian city Saint Petersburg" to Scandinavia, Pacific region, North and South America, Canada, Austria.
5. Solving the problem of "seasonal tourism".
Extension of the "high season": inviting tourists to St.Petersburg in August, September - the season called in Europe "Indian summer", or known in St.Petersburg as Pushkin's autumn. Development and promotion of a special autumn program, for example "Golden days in St.Petersburg". Business tourism stimulation in winter months, wider advertising of the program "White days" and etc.
6. Informing (through the system of international information exchange) about the possibilities to invest in St.Petersburg's tourist infrastructure.

Functions of the Centre

1. Analytical functions.
• Monitoring of demand and supply of travel services in world market.
• Analysis of customers' demands.
• Analysis of information inquiries.
• Monitoring of travel services advertising.
• Systematization of the information important for promotion and advertising St.Petersburg in world travel market.
• Formulation of proposes for Events Calendar compilation and new travel parcels creation and promotion.
2. Promotional and informational functions.
• Dissemination of accurate, current information about St.Petersburg and its cultural and business events, using various communicational means and channels (including chain hotels).
• Selection and providing the information about St.Petersburg according to informational inquiries.
• Co-operation with foreign mass media.
• Arranging familiarisation visits of overseas journalists.
• Determination of contents, terms, scale of advertising campaigns.
• Placing advertisement about St.Petersburg in the media overseas.

The Centre may develop advertising campaigns itself or order their development by advertising agencies and announce tenders.

Founders of the Centre

1. Main hotels of St.Petersburg (the participation of the five chain hotels is of principal importance).
2. Air company and airport "Pulkovo" (this organization has given the preliminary agreement to participate in establishing the Centre).
3. West European air companies making flights to St.Petersburg.
4. Big associations of the St.Petersburg restaurants and other objects of tourist's interest (for example, the corporation "Ost-West", which unites the restaurants "Saint Petersburg", "The Noble nest", "Senate-bar", and etc.).
5. Big companies uniting the St.Petersburg entertainment infrastructure (for example, Conti-group, night clubs, casinos).
6. Associations of transport (railway, bus) organizations.
7. Russian Union of Travel Industry (Commission for incoming tourism, consisting of the representatives of big incoming tour-operators of St.Petersburg).
8. St.Petersburg Administration.
9. Cultural institutions.

Besides the founders, the Centre may have the partners, for example, advertising agencies, research companies.

Financial resources of the Centre

1. Quite big constitutive fees of all partners.
2. Certain parts of the partners' budgets aimed for advertising.
3. Budget financing (We have developed a draft law of St.Petersburg "On the development of incoming tourism in St.Petersburg" and submitted it for the consideration to the St.Petersburg Legislative Assembly. It may be approved this winter and it provides for obligatory allotments from city budget for marketing St.Petersburg in world travel market).
4. Target financing (by partners and founders) of the projects developed by the Centre.
5. City-tax?

THE LIST OF THE FOUNDERS, THE CENTRE'S STRUCTURE, ITS FUNCTIONS AND TASKS, FINANCIAL RESOURCES - ARE THE QUESTIONS OF FURTHER DETAILED DISCUSSIONS.

We have made preliminary negotiations regarding the Centre's establishing with the organizations stated above in the list of the founders.

We kindly ask you to consider the possibility of uniting efforts to create the Centre for marketing St.Petersburg in world travel market and to participate in the work of the Commission for incoming tourism at the Russian Union of Travel Industry.

Support of the idea to create the Centre by the leading hoteliers in St.Petersburg may be an important milestone on the way of uniting our efforts.

We are eager to provide any additional information with regard to all above-mentioned items.