Michail Dubrovsky, Head of Press Office at the Committee said in a month and a half they will start a few tenders for Moscow advertising campaign in Russia and abroad. Particularly, to develop the marketing promotion strategy for the Russian capital as a tourist city.

Some 70-80 million rubles will be allocated for these purposes. Dubrovsky found it difficult to name the amount allocated for Moscow’s re-branding. The total sum to be spent for the tourist programme is 125 billion rubles.

"It so happened that we started the media and advertising campaign before we understood the necessity of a general concept", Dubrovsky says. Now the authorities are looking for a professional team to come up with an attractive image of the capital.

The Moscow Tourist Committee ordered the creation of the capital’s new image. As Dubrovsky explained, they will not assign any specific tasks for the tender participants. Although they know what the authorities want: to change the international perception stereotype - "a la Russe", which means winter fur cap with ear-flaps, matreshkas, etc.

- Moscow is seen as a city with only few tourist sights, which are the Kremlin, the Bolshoi Theater, The Tretyakov Gallery, St. Basil`s cathedral, says the press-secretary of the Committee. - These concepts we would like to change fundamentally.

The President of the Russian Tour Operators Association Vladimir Kantarovich thinks that the capital’s image should satisfy the core target audience: for now it is foreign pensioners, who come to the Russian capital for cultural enrichment. That`s why the main idea of the tourist concept of the city should position Moscow as the ancient capital of Orthodox Russia, where ancient arts were preserved in the numerous monasteries.

Re-branding of European capitals is normally performed in preparation for a large-scale event, the Olympic Games, for example. At present, the British agency Wolf Olins is creating the logo and the image visualization for London as the capital for the Olympic Games of 2012. In particular, only the logo development cost the Organizational Committee ?400 thousand. In due time, the new concept for the Spanish Barcelona before the Olympic Games of 1992 transformed small Catalan town into tourist center.

Dubrovsky underlined that the Moscow Tourist Committee is thinking to use the same teams that worked on the new images of London, Barcelona and other European cities.

In the opinion of the President of the Russian Tour Operators Association Vladimir Kantorovich, it is important to do serious work in order to create a comfortable environment for foreigners. The city needs to have signposts in English, free maps, tourist offices with employees speaking different languages.

At the same time, Osipov pointed out that the new Moscow image can`t be created separately from the new image of the whole country. Russian Tourist Agency says that Russia’s re-branding is underway. As Head of Press Office at the Russian Tourist Agency Oleg Moiseev says, emphasis is made on Russia’s image as a country of healthy and active lifestyle.

Maria Karnauh

Project Group №6