Marketing of Eastern and Western European Tourist Destinations in Russia

We carry on telling you about how different travel destinations are promoted in the Russian market. We have already introduced you to peculiarities of online promotion of Asian countries in Marketing of Asian Tourist Destinations in Russia. How Do Asians Gain the Attention of Russian Tourists? and countries of Southern and Northern Europe in Marketing of Northern and Southern European Tourist Destinations in Russia.

As a reminder, Top 20 countries of the far abroad, except for bordering countries, where most Russians went in 2018, look like this.

Source: Russian Federal State Statistics

Top 5 Popular Western and Eastern European Countries among Russian Tourists

According to the statistics, five leaders in outbound tourism among countries of Eastern and Western Europe (except for bordering countries) are as follows:

• Germany, 1.297 million (+6%)
• Czech Republic, 494 thousand (- 1%)
• France, 476 thousand (+1%)
• Bulgaria, 437 thousand (- 9%)
• Great Britain, 252 thousand (-1%)

Today we will look at examples of how these countries promote themselves in the Russian web space.

Germany

In the Russian public perception, Germany is associated with high-quality machines, punctuality of locals, and excellent national cuisine. Although travelling to this country from Russia has never been mass-market, it has good prospects, and the results of the latest years show it.

Some of the most popular German cities amount Russian tourists are Berlin, Munich, Dusseldorf, and Leipzig—there are direct flights there by Russian or German airlines.

Berlin magnetizes tourists, including youth, being the capital of Germany, the city of arts, creativity, and fashion. At the same time, it is Bavaria with Munich as its capital that is the most often visited state of Germany (by Russians) and the most powerful region of the country in terms of economy. Bavaria has a prolific sunny climate and a lot of architectural tourist attractions. Dusseldorf is in demand by business travelers; besides, this is a fashionable capital of Germany. There are a plenty of showrooms and boutiques there, and it is safe to say that Dusseldorf is one large mall where beautiful and original clothes are in abundance.

Germany is a universal destination, ready to offer absolutely any types of tourism: excursion, family, medical, inclusive, business, as well as culinary tourism.

Let’s see what online channels are used by the German National Tourist Board in Russia and CIS for promotion.

• Website www.germany.travel, optimized for different language versions (including Russian), which presents information on the regions and landmarks of the country; besides, travelers can find there information on the events in German cities (one can choose by different filters: city, date, name of an event or its focus).

On the website you can subscribe to a newsletter of a project ‘Tourist Region of Germany’:

We inform about up-to-date offers, events, and news on the Tourist Region of Germany. Emails can contain travel offers from our partners with links to third-party sites that may use tools for conversion tracking.

• Social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a Youtube channel. However, accounts are mostly in English and German. There is a series of 360 Videos on Youtube about various tourist attractions (unfortunately, the content is not translated into Russian).

• Special projects jointly with Aviasales.ru, air ticket aggregator. The German National Tourist Board conducted several events aimed at informing consumers about travels to Germany (in particular, one of them was aimed at development of Leipzig as a travel destination). We would like to note that special projects with big partners such as air ticket search services, as well as hotel booking websites can become an excellent channel to promote the destination because they allow coverage of a huge target audience that already uses the services.

Czech Republic

Attractive travel destinations of the Czech Republic are presented in the Russian market within the terms of a marketing campaign “The Czech Republic — Land of Stories”, which aim is to spark the interest in potential tourists by means of engaging stories, which travelers can open and live through first-hand.

CzechTourism promotes the Czech Republic brand on the domestic and foreign market on several levels. It participates in dozens of domestic and foreign tourism fairs and publishes sets of publications, brochures and maps in several languages attracting visitors to the Czech regions. An important element of promoting the Czech Republic abroad is to introduce tourism potential through press and excursion tours, i.e. trips to the Czech Republic designated for foreign journalists and tour operators. Another agenda is to support major domestic events of both a local and international character.

• An integral part of the promotion of the Czech Republic abroad is the portal managed by CzechTourism. Apart from sections with useful information for travelers about regions and cities, business and news events in the country, tips and recommendations, in the Trips section on the website the travelers can see different options of excursion offers for Czech historic landmarks. Besides, users can subscribe to the CzechTourism newsletter.

• In social media, CzechTourism maintaints two accounts on Facebook and VKontakte in Russian (more than 15 thousand subscribers). The pages of the Czech Republic as a travel destination can present information on visitor attractions and resorts of the country, various events held in the Czech Republic such as carnivals, fairs, exhibitions, and outdoor festivities. It is noteworthy that CzechTourism mostly uses pictures in its posts from its own archive.

On the Czech travel destination channel on Youtube, there are playlists in different languages (including Russian), which is appreciated by tourists of different nations of the globe. The clips demonstrate marvelous landscapes of different regions of the Czech Republic and propose travelers to ‘open the Royal Czech Republic’ and plunge into its history.

France

For most Russian tourists, France is associated with the most romantic place on earth.

Among reasons that chiefly beckon tourists to this wonderful country, the first thing to note is the Eiffel Tower that is the capital’s showpiece day and night, when the whole tower is brightly illuminated. If you do not have a picture with the Eiffel Tower on the background, then the trip is kind of a faliure, since it is the landmark of France.

The capital of France is also famous for its numerous cultural and architectural sites. As for those that are must-see, it can be Notre-Dame de Paris, which beauty and majesty just takes your breath away.

France is replete with diverse resort zones for both active and passive relaxation. In the former case, it is worth paying attention to Courchevel, one of the most well-known ski resorts in the world; in the latter one, to Saint-Tropez, a no less popular resort on the coast. Besides, the Corsica Island is worth attention, too, being a motherland of Napoleon himself, where there is still his home. It is simply a paradise for history lovers.

• On the website of the France Tourism Development Agency ru.france.fr, a traveler from Russian can find practically any information about the country: where to go, what to do, what events to attend and even how a get a visa to Shenghen countries.

• In social media, just like members of the Czech travel destination, Atout France maintains two accounts in Russian: on VK and FB. Castles and attractions of the country’s regions and their history, art galleries and incredible paintings of French artists, culinary and cultural events—this is just a fraction of what the France Tourism Development Agency tells in their posts. On Instagram, Atout France mostly presents user content with short descriptions (in English).

Atout France actively maintains a channel on Youtube. Unfortunately, there is no separate playlist for the Russian-speaking audience, but all channel videos are handily distributed into categories: regions, landmarks, and themes, for example, cuisine. And this is a promo clip about France as a touristic destination on their channel:

Bulgaria

Rich cultural heritage, scenic landscapes, flamboyant and hearty people are all these things that act as a magnet for travelers.

Bulgaria attracts Russian tourists, first of all, by its ski resorts. Of course, they do not beat Austrian or French pistes, but will still strike a chord with our Russian mountain lovers, especially thanks to the pricing.

A great attraction for tourists is the eastern coast of the Black Sea in a warm summertime. At that time, tour operators offer not only options for beach holidays in comfortable hotels, but also extreme and diving tours. Besides, Bulgaria attracts tourists by wide opportunities for balneal and spa recreation.

In early March, Russian and Bulgarian representatives signed a Program for Joint Actions for Tourism for 2019-2021, aimed at increase of a mutual tourist flow of both countries. Now let’s see in what Internet channels Bulgaria is officially presented as a travel destination.

• The content in the official tourism portal of Bulgaria www.bulgariatravel.org is translated into different languages, including Russian. The website presents basic information for tourists: historic and geographical data about the region, tourist attractions, types of tourism, useful information for visitors.

• On the Youtube channel there is a video in several languages (including Russian), where within 10 minutes a guide tells about and shows the most beautiful and remarkable places of Bulgaria, tells its history, local traditions, customs, and beliefs, gastronomic habits of Bulgarians.

Great Britain

Great Britain can hardly be called a resort country, but, anyway, people come there from all over the world to enjoy the charm of the Albion, equally different from hot seaside resorts and European mountain ski regions with their near Alpine chalets. Those who like a mild, temperate climate will quite enjoy the coast of Great Britain—it is no coincidence that there are so many health resorts there.

The United Kingdom is a country of the acting monarchy with the richest history and culture: cathedrals, palaces, parks, museums, pubs, solemn ceremonials, musicals, opera performances, and street performers.

• For those who are only going to take a trip, an easily navigable website www.visitbritain.com shows you travel purposes ‘I’m travelling for…’” stories, new places, new tastes, arts, discoveries, or relaxation—the information on the website is filtered, depending on the purpose chosen. Besides, the website provides useful information for tourists: how to save on a trip, how to get a visa, and other tips aimed at helping a tourist organize his or her trip to Great Britain.

• From the Facebook page (the account in this social network is adapted for the Russian-speaking audience), potential travelers from Russia can learn more about regions and landmarks of the country.

360° videos on the Youtube channel helps to get to know more about the country’s cities and attractions and awakes a desire to walk along the streets of London live.

Conclusion

We looked through the examples of how the European countries that are most popular among Russian tourists promote their travel destination online.

If you decided to promote your travel destination in the Russian market or to enhance your marketing strategy to win hearts of Russian tourists, you need to do the following:

1. Study our paper “Russian Tourism Market Report: Trends, Analysis & Statistics”, which will help you learn more about the environment and specificity of the Russian market.

2. Contact experts from RMAA Travel who will help you create and implement a marketing strategy to promote your travel destination in the Russian market.