The Riga municipality hopes the investment in tourism will help resuscitate the city's down economy. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.
RIGA — Riga city officials and tourism business are hoping a new marketing strategy “Live Riga” will boost the tourism sector up to 20 percent and create thousands of jobs in the Latvian capital.
The Riga Tourism Development Bureau (RTAB) announced a new marketing strategy Thursday. It’s modeled on the successful “Be Berlin” campaign of 2008.
“Riga does not need a fragmented tourism-promotion structure. Riga does not need one-off advertising campaigns lacking a clear purpose beyond self-promotion,” Deputy Mayor of Riga Ainārs Šlesers said in a press release.
Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and Estonia will be the markets where the new brand will be advertised initially.
RTAB said increased turnover in the tourism sector will improve the development prospects for a string of related businesses such as organizers of cultural and arts events, restaurants and bars, concert promoters, transport service providers and others.
The new brand, which was created by RTAB, will promote Riga overseas as a Nordic metropolis.
“Tourism is actually the only sector where relatively fast growth is possible. That is why, in a time of economic crisis, it is precisely tourism and its economic contribution to the city and its residents that can be good news,” Latvian Hotel and Restaurant Association President Jānis Naglis said.
The RTAB is working on the motif “What’s good for Riga’s residents is good for tourists” for its activities and the new Riga brand. One of the biggest challenges involved is getting local residents to get involved with tourism, they said.
Riga has a tarnished international reputation as a place where tourists can get robbed or cheated in bars and other tourist attractions. The government launched a crackdown on such bars in September.
Competing to sell Riga
Ten international creative agencies were invited to participate in a two-month-long tender for the right to develop an image for the city of Riga and execute its marketing communication program. The winner was German agency Embassy, who created the Be Berlin campaign.
The Riga City Council has allocated one million lats (€1.43 million) to the project. This will develop an overseas advertising campaign for Riga. Other members of the board will contribute financially at a later date. Seventy percent of RTAB is owned by the Riga City Council while the rest is divided evenly between airBaltic, the Latvian Hotel and Restaurant Association and the Latvian Travel Agents’ Association.
