Tijuana On The Hudson

Now that Moscow is the most expensive city on the planet, I suppose it makes sense to lure more people to the bargain that is the Big Apple:

New York City has become the first American city to have a tourism office in Moscow.

NYC & Company, which runs New York’s tourism industry, commissioned the Aviareps Group to do advertising and public relations work in Moscow. The office will be staffed by three people currently living in Russia.

Another city tourism office opened Tuesday in Stockholm, to serve Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is all part of Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to increase the city’s visitor numbers to 50 million by 2015. It is estimated that about 44 million tourists visited New York last year, 46,000 from Russia.

The city’s director of public relations for travel and tourism, Christopher Heywood, said Russians “have a propensity for the luxury goods market — they love the furs and diamonds, and they love the luxury hotels.”

Copenhagen is 8 on the list and Oslo is 10 . . .