Helsinki - a city for just everybody

Image campaign aims at marketing Helsinki as gay-friendly spot where east meets west

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By Antti Tiainen
     
      Attention, Helsinki residents: did you know that you are the reason why tourists come here?
      “The local residents are the number one factor in attracting people”, says Kari Halonen, head of marketing at the Helsinki City Tourist and Convention Bureau.
      Halonen is fluent at the language of Marketing, using words like differentials, segments, and scenarios. With the help of such terms, he has been branding Helsinki for the past five years.
      Before that, many people knew, perhaps, that Helsinki is famous for its fjords [the closest are actually in Norway]. Such misconceptions are by no means impossible even now, but according to Halonen’s vision, Helsinki is now, among other things, a gay-friendly city, where the cultures of east and west meet.
     
Now these images face a test, because summer tourists have taken over Helsinki again. Or at least the Helsinki Help tourist advisors are hitting the streets on Friday.
      The promise of a meeting place for east and west was something that Helsinki’s closest competitors, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Oslo, Tallinn, Riga, and St. Petersburg did not have to offer.
      Studies indicate that on the tolerance scale, Helsinki lags behind its Nordic competitors. Therefore, this summer’s new feature is that Helsinki declared itself a gay-, bi-, lesbian-, and transgender-friendly travel destination.
      These visitors represent a demographic who travel much and spend large amounts of money when they travel, Halonen says, and he has research to back him up.
     
So far Helsinki’s gay bars and about 20 other companies have declared themselves to be gay friendly on the city’s tourism pages.
      Halonen’s challenge is to “commit the travel business of the people of Helsinki to travel”. To that end, Helsinki plans to launch a website at the end of the year, which the marketing people call a learning environment. On the site, residents and companies can learn how to market the Helsinki brand.
     
Helsinki is architecture, design, and cultural events in a lush, safe city of a convenient size.
      The learning environments describe how Helsinki should be described to guests and to corporate customers. The pages include ready-made weekly programmes, for instance.
      Halonen is sure that there is a need for such pages. He speaks of the utilisation of a social media.
     
So does Helsinki plan to register itself onto Facebook and Twitter?
      That too. Helsinki plans to make itself seen on blogs and in picture galleries, and to be part of online communities, Halonen explains.
      He says that all residents of Helsinki will be needed in the task.
      Quite nice - nothing earth-shattering, and certainly nothing with clearly-defined boundaries.
     
However, the aim is to influence young adults who travel. Helsinki used to be a good destination for the middle-aged and older, in the eyes of tourists.
      Now the Helsinki brand encompasses, in the Tourist and Convention Bureau slang, three different wholes for young adults: the bohemian Kaurismäki Helsinki, the luxurious Sex in the City Helsinki, and the wilder party Helsinki.
      A brochure has been compiled from all of these, with indications of destinations worthy of a visit: Kaurismäki in the cafes of Kallio, Sex in the City in the Kämp Galleria shopping complex, and on Hietaniemi beach, and partying at the Cable Factory, or at the Erottaja Bar.
      Naturally, the brochure can also be found on the Internet.
     
It appears that Helsinki is something for everyone, at the very least. A fairly versatile brand: but does it correspond to reality?
      “One hundred per cent”, Halonen says.
      There are many consultants’ reports on this, and historians have also been consulted on the brand building matter.
      Excellent. The only problem left is that travellers do not spend enough time here.
      In spite of Halonen’s openings, the typical sphere of experience for a tourist is limited, more or less, to the strip marked by the Esplanade, Mannerheimintie, and Aleksanterinkatu, which is rapidly seen.
      Could Northern and Eastern Helsinki be part of the brand.
      “They are by no means outside the marketing. We even market Tapanila, and Espoo and Vantaa: the Heureka science centre the Serena water park and resort, the Nuuksio national park. We even market the Estonian capital Tallinn as a destination for day trips.
      St. Petersburg will also be a target, once a high-speed rail link is established there.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 14.6.2009


Links:
  Official City of Helsinki tourism website

ANTTI TIAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
antti.tiainen@hs.fi