Moscow Launches $27 Million Campaign To Overhaul Image
Josephine Roque - All Headline News Staff Writer Moscow (AHN) - Moscow is determined to remedy its image among foreigners with a $27 million campaign. Reports have criticized Moscow's high prices, traffic, and pollution. There is also a shortage of quality hotel space, tourism offices, public toilets and facilities for the disabled. "After all, Mickey Mouse is just a mouse with good publicity," said Veronika Khilchevskaya, the consultant working on the campaign with the Moscow mayor's office to improve the Russian capital's image. "We should present Moscow as a confident, comfortable and interesting city," Mayor Yury Luzhkov told the AFP after the city was deemed as the most expensive in the world for expatriates in a recent survey. The mayor has blamed the media, whom he says concentrate on "negative information" about Moscow. Moscow is a global metropolis, populated with more than 10 million people but it still lacks an English-language Internet site. Negotiations are underway to purchase the site moscow.com, from a private individual. "It pays to make a good impression," said Grigory Antyufeyev, head of the Moscow Tourism Committee. "Every foreign tourist brings 900 dollars to the city." An estimated 3.5 million foreigners have visited Moscow last year, a number which is seven times less than Paris, Antyufeyev added. Moscow has been transformed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 199 |
