15 March 2005 – Philippine Ambassador to Moscow Ernesto V. Llamas reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the feature articles on the Philippines in top Russian Magazines have enhanced the competitiveness of the Philippine in the Russian travel market. Ambassador Llamas lauded the result of the cooperation of the Embassy and Department of Tourism (DoT) Office, Frankfurt saying that “the exposure may just be what the Philippines needs to compete in Russia’s fast-growing outbound tourist market.”

“The publication of the articles in the magazines was the result of the media familiarization tour arranged by the Embassy and DoT in Frankfurt last year.  It also reflected concessions won by the Embassy from magazine editors to coordinate the schedules of competing publications and busy editorial line-up,” Ambassador Llamas added.

The Philippines was recently featured in the Russian edition of Cosmopolitan, marking the sixth time the country appeared in the glossy pages of travel, lifestyle and women’s publications throughout Russia in eight months.  Ambassador Llamas said the four-page article by prominent Russian journalist Elena Kostyleva entitled, Eight Days, Seven Nights, presented the country to Cosmo’s 160,000 readers in February 2005 as modern and sophisticated on one hand and an unspoiled island paradise on the other.

Other magazines in which the article about the Philippines appeared were fitness magazine Shape, travel magazine Voyage and the Germany-based GEO, a revue in the same mold as National Geographic. Russia’s homegrown Voyazh I Otdykh (Travel and Leisure),  Mir (World) – a travelers’ spin-off of the popular arts and culture weekly Afisha completed the Philippines’ unprecedented run in the Russian-speaking media, Ambassador Llamas said.

The marketing blitz, which cost the Philippine Government a small sum given the considerable private sector sponsorship, represented an aggregate of 800,000 copies for all magazines sold to subscribers and kiosks throughout Russia’s 11 time zones, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan as well as Western and Central European capitals.

Ambassador Llamas said the Embassy’s study of Russian consumer patterns revealed that while men possessed higher purchasing power, they often consulted their holiday decisions with their wives or girlfriends, who were better informed and had more nuanced opinions thanks to exposure to various media sources, including glossy magazines. END
 

/jay