Psst! Wanna go to Vladivostok? The women have beautiful legs. I was talking to a UN Development Programme adviser at a tourism event in the SAR last week when a Russian interrupted and thrust a leaflet into my hand.
'You must go to Vladivostok,' he urged. 'It is wonderful.' A few years ago you would almost certainly have been charged with spying if you had slipped into this northern port. It was a naval base for the former Soviet Union. Now the city is trying to woo tourists, and how!
The PR is obviously not handled by Saatchi and Saatchi. According to the promotion material I was given by this Torch and Co representative, a hot name for a travel agent in a very cold place, 'This is a city of winds, rains and beautiful women . . . it is also rich in many factories and plants. It is an industrial centre of the region . . . Beauty of the women is one of the sights of Vladivostok, too. Local men are rather accustomed to pretty female faces and beautiful legs, but for the outsiders it gets to be a very attractive feature.'
In Vladivostok most women are likely to keep their legs well covered, unless those high winds lift the occasional skirt. Soon, locals will be hacking away on the frozen river to indulge in a winter favourite, ice hole fishing.
Industrial pollution and other environmental ills were high on the agenda of the event, the second annual International Travel Asia (ITA) trade show, but others were keen on controlling, not promoting them. Dr Dawid de Villiers, deputy secretary-general of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), warned that the tourism industry is in danger of imploding if it does not address environmental damage. He told delegates at ITA, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre: 'In the success of the tourism industry lies its greatest challenge.' Tourism was having a huge impact on the social, cultural and natural environment, he said.
'Air traffic is becoming denser, destinations more overcrowded, the pressure on environmental and cultural sites more intensive,' he added, and warned the tourism industry must get its act together by working to protect the attractions that fill its coffers.