City Reaches To Russia For Tourists

By LEORA FALK, Special to the Sun
March 23, 2007

New York City has become the first American city to have a tourism office in Moscow.

NYC & Company, which runs New York's tourism industry, commissioned the Aviareps Group to do advertising and public relations work in Moscow. The office will be staffed by three people currently living in Russia.

Another city tourism office opened Tuesday in Stockholm, to serve Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is all part of Mayor Bloomberg's plan to increase the city's visitor numbers to 50 million by 2015. It is estimated that about 44 million tourists visited New York last year, 46,000 from Russia.

The city's director of public relations for travel and tourism, Christopher Heywood, said Russians "have a propensity for the luxury goods market — they love the furs and diamonds, and they love the luxury hotels."

He would not say how much was paid to the Aviareps Group, which also manages offices in several of New York City's 10 other international tourism offices.

He said that in addition to helping to create revenue in luxury sales, the move to Russia was important in order to compete in the international tourism market. "The consumer has more choices than ever before; we have to be creative to distinguish ourselves," he said. "We are really advertising the authentic New York City."