Jurmala looking both West, East in future

As various cities boost their public relations in an effort to lure more visitors, Jurmala, Latvia's prime health resort on the Bay of Riga, has realized that it can no longer afford to rest on its popular image of white sandy beaches and sea air.

Competition among Latvian cities is picking up at both local and international tourism markets as public relation departments get more sophisticated.

The port city Ventspils' recently aired impressive commercials at the recent broadcast of the national preliminaries for the Eurovision Song Contest, convincing the public that it is "the city on the move."

Latvia's capital, marketed as "the city of inspiration," is also making its push to shape its image.

Jurmala, the summer boomtown just 25 kilometers away from the metropolis, can be quite in the sleepy off-season, and the City Council has embarked on a strategy to promote the area as a hub of exciting events.

As part of this marketing strategy, an open competition for the creation of a city logo and motto was announced.

Details for the competition state that the logo and motto should "associate with a place that induces a wish to relax, creates the impression of a welcoming, inviting, harmonious, safe, dynamic, attractive, thriving and active city."

Proposals will be accepted by Jurmala City Council until March 21.

Jurmala's Mayor Dainis Urbanovics is chairman of the competition committee.

While admitting that creating a new city motto and symbol this spring - even if all goes as planned - is a long-term venture and will most likely be too late to reach international holiday-makers this year, Jurmala specialists hope the new image will still be timely to reel in local tourists who, after all, still make up half of Jurmala's visitors.

Jurmala City Council hopes to have the new symbols ready by the official start of the holiday season, June 1.

While in previous years Jurmala's tourism board worked more toward Russian and Ukrainian tourism markets, where the word "Jurmala" is still a brand in itself, 2003 marks the beginning of a change in the long-term strategy.

"Without decreasing attention to the East, we are entering new markets," said Armands Muiznieks, head of Jurmala City Council's tourism department.

"Our future strategy is that each year we will try to work with a different Western country, so that not only the number of visitors from the East would increase, but also that from the West," Muiznieks said.

During the first six months of 2002 the number of tourists from Russia increased by 118 percent year-on-year, according to the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia.

"Work in the international direction has begun, and that is precisely when we feel the lack of a logo and a motto - a very short, very concise means of drawing attention to Jurmala," said Veronika Ramane, chief PR specialist with Jurmala City Council.

Jurmala's 18.3 million lat (29,05 million euros) budget for 2003 - a 25 percent increase from last year -was approved on March 5.

Out of that only 38,000 lats have been earmarked for tourism development, according to Muiznieks.

Still, Jurmala will also try to reap the benefits of the Eurovision Song Contest by hosting a side event for this year's contest held in Riga on May 24.

"As you know, people can only vote for their own country's entry if they are abroad. A Russian cannot vote for a Russian band in Russia. Jurmala is the place where you can do it," said Muiznieks, adding that tour operators in Moscow were currently working on attracting tourists to Jurmala especially for the May 24 contest.