MARKETING AS A KEY PART OF TOURISM: THE EXPERIENCE OF ROVANIEMI FOR ARKHANGELSK

Akhmadjonov A.T.

student, Higher School of Social Sciences, Humanities and International Communication, [email protected]

Scientific supervisor: Freyberg M.V.

International tourism has become one of the dominant sectors of the world economy, with its sphere of economic activity involving natural, human, cultural, historical and other resources. Topical is the notion of tourist resources as a combination of natural, cultural, and historical values along with other types of resources arousing interest among travelers.

Unique natural complexes and picturesque landscapes with rich and endemic flora and fauna, historical monuments and architecture, as well as the cultural heritage of the Russian North can become the basis for the development of tourism industry in the Arkhangelsk Region. However, in spite of the existing tourism potential, advantageous geographical and political situation, the Arkhangelsk region occupies a very modest place in the tourist market. The main directions of tourism flows are the Solovetsky Islands, Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Onega, Kargopol, Kenozersky National Park and Pinega. Nevertheless, half of the arriving tourists stay in the City of Arkhangelsk [7].

Of great interest for pilgrims and those preferring cognitive, as well as ecological, tourism are the Solovetsky Islands, located in the northern part of the Onega Bay in the White Sea. Located here is the famous Solovetsky Monastery (built in the 15^th century) with its kremlin, temples and sketes. The monastery played an important role in protecting the northern borders of Russia, acting as both a spiritual and economic coordinator and a collector of art works. In 1920, the islands were turned into the forced labor camps, where political prisoners and clergy members were held, including the philosopher, mathematician, chemist and priest P.A. Florensky [8].

In Russia, a country huge in terms of area and variety of natural conditions, tourist resources are not used enough. In the opinion of Voskresenkiy, the reason for this lies, along with other reasons, in the property issues that have not been ultimately resolved and are still largely declarative in nature. In Russia, you cannot buy an island and make it a prestigious resort, as was done by an Austrian entrepreneur P. Kupelweiser, acquiring the Brioni archipelago in the Adriatic Sea [8].

For the development of tourism in Russia, it is important to use the best practices of the Northern European countries, such as Finland. In this country, great attention was paid to the development of the tourism industry, which is of an important social, cultural and economic significance for the Russian Federation.

Tourism has grown strongly in the Rovaniemi region since the nineties of the 20^th century. Approximately 500,000 tourists visit Rovaniemi every year. Rovaniemi’s unique location at the latitude of the Arctic Circle has attracted visitors from all over the world and almost 60 percent of the visitors come from abroad [5].

Fifty years ago, travel-marketing experts came up with the idea of attracting tourists to the remote Lapland, and settled a train station and an airport in Rovaniemi. Over the years, the Santa Claus related attractions are swarming with visitors willing to see the Northern Lights or go on the reindeer safaris; most of the visitors come from the countries with a strong Christmas tradition, bringing children along for the ultimate Santa’s Grotto experience [4].

The Santa Claus Village is an artificial touristic object built purely to attract tourists. Artificially created tourism centers such as Disneyland and the Walt Disney World in the United States, and other similar objects have proven successful in attracting tourists to the regions with limited natural attractions. They combine a variety of nostalgic elements into a postmodern pastiche [2].

By the European standards, prices for Finnish tourist services are high. One of the reasons for this can be high taxes and labor costs. In this case, Arkhangelsk is promising, because prices are much lower than in Rovaniemi and Europe.

The first consideration of using Santa Claus as an attraction appeared in 1927, when a Finnish radio commentator and producer of children’s programs announced that Santa Claus’s home had been found on Korvatunturi, a fell on the Finnish/Russian border in Lapland [2].

In 1980, the Finnish Ministry for Tourism launched a new strategy for the Lapland region: the Santa Claus’s Land. The centerpiece of the marketing plan was the Santa’s town – Rovaniemi [3].

Lapland spends most of the advertising budget on social media and receives enquiries from travel bloggers about co-operation possibilities daily. Rovaniemi is present on several social media platforms. Their most active platforms, with the biggest conversations with visitors and followers, are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Apart from English, they also run social media accounts in Russian, Chinese and Japanese on the relevant channels, and have a Japanese Facebook community which particularly active and engaged [1].

In the 21^st century, tourism has become a commodity of consumption. Tourism has always been concerned with the visual and the spectacular: its object is the object of a tourist’s gaze; the touristic sight becomes a systematic and organized encounter at which one gazes.

Hence, as we can see “Santa Claus” is a just icon of the Rovaniemi’s tourism industry. This icon keeps attracting many tourists around the world thanks to professional marketing. Compared with Rovaniemi, Arkhangelsk has more opportunities and icons. For example, the Solovetsky Islands main sights: the Solovetsky Fortress and the Cathedrals, the Sekirnaya Hill, the Church of Ascension, the Commemoration Cross, the Solovki Botanical Garden, the Belugas Cape and many others. The group of Zayatsky Islands has a lot of attractions, including the Church and the sea-birds on the Big Zayatsky Island [6].

In conclusion, it should be noted that in order to successfully achieve the goals of tourism enterprises, it is necessary to establish information and analytical support of the marketing activities, that is, to conduct marketing research and introduce marketing information analysis systems. The above-mentioned Santa Claus marketing plan of Lapland serves as a prime example.

Summarizing the above, it is concluded that for the successful existence and development of tourist potential, it is necessary to not only introduce the product to the market, but also prove its usefulness, and be able to present it to the consumer from the favorable point of view. Being competitive is one of the main tasks of any region. Marketing activity will help to choose the right course of the tourist policy, create an image, claim the high quality of products, and take a leading position.

REFERENCES

1. An interview with Eva Kiviranta, head of social media and PR at VisitFinland: Finland Tourism Marketing Means More Than Santa Claus // Cooperatize journal URL: http://blog.cooperatize.com/finland-tourism-marketing/ (access date 18.03.2018)

2. Michael Pretes: Postmodern Tourism the Santa Claus Industry // University of Calgary, Canada – p. 13

3. Popescul R.I., Corboş R.A.: The Role Of Tourism Marketing In Thestrategic Development Of The Town Of Rovaniemi // Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest URL: http://www.mnmk.ro/documents/2010ed2/10_Popescu_Corbos%20FFF.pdf (access date 18.03.2018)

4. Rod Nordland: Santa in Finland, Where Marketing Triumphs Over Geography // NY Times URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20180101044105/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/world/europe/finland-lapland-santa.html (access date 18.03.2018)

5. Rovaniemi // International Rovaniemi URL: http://international.rovaniemi.fi/en/Services/About-Us (access date 18.03.2018)

6. Solovetsky Islands // Nordic Travel URL: http://nordictravel.ru/russia-guide/russia-sights/solovetsky-islands (access date 18.03.2018)

7. Toskunina V.E. Problems of tourism development in the Arkhangelsk region [Text] / V.E. Toskunina, N.N. Shpanova // Economic and social changes: facts, trends and forecast. - 2009. - Vol. 1. – pp. 52-53

8. Voskresenskiy V.Y. International tourism: / - 2^nd edition, revised and expanded. - M.: UNITY-DANA, 2015. – p. 265.