Arne Ellefors: «One of Your Biggest Tourist Assets is Your People»

A group of representatives of Polack State University has gone to Gotland, Sweden. The Belarusian scientists will study common history of the Scandinavian country and Polack, and they will participate in some archeological studies. This trip has become a part of a program of cooperation between Polack and the island of Gotland in Sweden. This cooperation becomes even stronger within the framework of a joint project Panorama Dvina Daugava. The project is run together by Belarus, Sweden and Latvia. Its goal is to develop tourism within old “way from the Vikings to Greeks”. Last week Mr. Arne Ellefors, Panorama Dvina Daugava project manager, visited Polack and answered the questions of our correspondent Andrei Aliaksandrau. 

— The main target region of your activities is Viciebsk. Why is that?
— There are some common features of the history of Scandinavia and specifically Sweden, and this area of Belarus that we believe can attract international tourists to the region. I mean the time of the Vikings, and our old relations including Ragvalod, who was the first known king of Polack, and his daughter Ragneda, etc. So, for people from Sweden it is easier to choose this area, as, for instance, Polish tourists would prefer Hrodna, Mir or Navahrudak. So, you have Polack as the cradle of Belarus and Viciebsk with Marc Chagall. And all these features have not been used really, at least not in the way they should have been used, to my point of view. 

Viciebsk in the eyes of Marc Chagall

— What are the main achievements of the project?
— We often say that there are several steps. First, we are in a process of creating attention and interest to a place. Than we decide to go to the destination, followed by the action of buying a ticket and finally we get satisfied when we come home. So now we are at the process of creation attention. We have started with a trip to the area and it resulted in a series of very nice articles in Swedish media including the largest Swedish daily. They presented Belarus the best way it has ever been presented in Sweden. The focus was on Belarusian people and their kindness and friendliness. That was good for going on.

Within the project we also finance a film “Viciebsk in the eyes of Marc Chagall”. It is already decided that the film will be broadcasted at several Russian TV channels. Our goal is to translate this film into English, so that it can be used in international media to promote this region. Marketing is really expensive, so we try to do it in a smart way using media.

More interested by 10%

— Do you feel that people in Sweden are now more interested in Belarus as the project goes on?
— Our operational goal is to increase incoming tourism by 10 per cent. We had a good publicity in Sweden, and of course there are people who read the articles. There are a number of tour operators that plan to involve Belarus as a part of their Eastern program. So, some Swedish tour operators are now looking into making trips to Belarus.

We have suggested two major travel products. The first route starts in Riga. Tourists go from there by bus to Daugavpils, and than to Braslau, Dzisna, Glybokae, Polack, Viciebsk, Lepel, Hatyn’ and Minsk. Than they visit Vilnius and go back to Riga in 7-8 days.

The second thing we try to promote is what we call a “long short break”. In this case we try to use air-traffic to Minsk. Within the project we intend to partly finance a bus that goes than from Minsk to Viciebsk, Polack, Hatyn’ and goes back to Minsk. In tourist language we call it “fixed departures”. That means that international tour operators from any country can buy one or two tickets to that bus and they are sure the bus will go, because it is a ‘fixed departure’. This tour lasts from Thursday till Monday morning. That means that you can see quite a lot of Belarus in very short time and maybe those tourists would like to come back.

For us this is one of the ways of creating interest for the Viciebsk region, and not only for foreign tour operators. During our first conference in Polack we had tour operators from Minsk. It was amazing, but for some of them it was their first visit to the Viciebsk region! It was even more surprising as they were responsible for incoming tourists! But how can you sell something that you have not seen with your own eye, or smelled with your senses or if you have not met the people in the region? For me, it was really amazing.

Your ordinary people are extraordinary for our tourists

— Are the routs you have mentioned already being operated?
— I personally made a trip along this road to test it. And on a scale form 0 to 10 the trip got 9.6, which is extremely high. The basic reason for that is the fact that your country is not so known. And even if it’s known, it is in absolutely negative way. So the tourists who come here feel like explorers. For example, we came to Lepel on the first night of our trip, and we came to some restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We were suddenly engaged with the people around us, we had some conversations. And one of the locals came and asked: “Can we see your bus, because we have not seen such a good bus in our lives?” And we really felt that it had not been any tourists here! And both tourists and local inhabitants were excited!

What I continuously say is that one of your biggest tourist assets is your people. So, during our meetings in Polack I suggested a plan. If, for example, some tourists come to Polack, could you arrange that they come to a family, eat an ordinary dinner, and talk to people with the help of an interpreter. It is really interesting to hear how the life of local people is, what they think on different matters, what income they have, what rent for their house they pay, etc. This is what ordinary people would like to discuss. People to people contacts are what really matters.

The language question

— Are there any problems you have encountered during the realization of the project? Is there anything that have not gone that smooth as you thought?
— The language question is one barrier that we have. There are so few people here who speak English or some other foreign language. And tourists that come here usually do not speak Russian or Belarusian. Today anywhere in Europe you have at least one person at the reception who can speak English, even if it is bad, but you can communicate to some extend. There are hotel rooms in your area that do not have information in any other language than Russian. If this is the case, it’s a message that you are not interested in any foreign tourists.

There is also a lack of signs in Latin letters, and it is difficult for us to find the way. There are some problems with tourist infrastructure as well. As far as I know, Polack has only one hotel. For a city that has 80,000 inhabitants and that wants to be a tourism center an hotel investments somehow must be on agenda.

The visas issue

— Another problem that can prevent tourist from going to Belarus is visas. In Europe people can go anywhere without a visa. And they have to get a visa to go to Belarus, which takes time and efforts. I have some statistics that seems interesting to me. Our Swedish tourism to Russia decreased last year by 30 per cent. People say that as the competitive market now is so strong, you can go to Thailand and it will be less expensive as to go to Saint-Petersburg, for example. Including all these vise trouble, you choose another destination. At the same time, Ukraine did the other way round. They took the visas away, so no person from European Union needs a visa to go to Ukraine today. And their tourism increased by 50 per cent! So you can see that visas are something that prevents you from going.

Three are also things that already have been improved. For example, the border between Belarus and Latvia is now easier to pass. For example, your customs authorities introduced the Green Line.

Tourism is something like a car industry

— Any problems with authorities or any other partners in Belarus?
— We are introducing communication centers within the framework of our project. E have such centers in Viciebsk, Polack, Dzisna and also in Daugavpils. In Polack the center operates in university and the National History and Culture Preserve. I believe they can work together with tour operators and business to develop something that the municipality has difficulties to do itself. Tourism is something like a car industry. You have a number of different parts that have to be put together. And gorispolkom, or a tour operator, or a hotel are only parts of it. All of these partners have to work together to get a better business.

We have to make Polack more receptive for the tourists. So, it should be clear that the task of a city is to work with four main target groups, namely the inhabitants, the business that you already have, the business that you would like to be introduced in Polack and invest money, and the tourists who should spend their money and spend here as many days as possible. All these groups need different approaches, but still there are also a number of joint activities and that is why you have to cooperate to do that. This is the way to improve the situation, as this is what is lacking today.

Andrei Aliaksandrau

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www.panoramadvinadaugava.info