St. Petersburg expects 6,5 million tourists next year

St. Petersburg expects 6,5 million tourists next year

According to a business daily ‘Vedomosti’ in 2015 St. Petersburg was visited by a total of 6,5 million tourists. The number of foreign tourists has reached the pre-crisis level, while the number of domestic tourists has reached a record high. The committee of tourism representative Galina Gromova clarified that 2013 is considered to be ‘the pre-crisis period’. In 2013 and 2014 St. Petersburg was visited by 6,3 million tourists. The committee takes into account both organized group tourism and individual tourists, meaning that these figures are very likely to be true, says Pavel Rumyantsev , the Deputy Director for Communications and International Projects of the North-West Division Office of the Russian Union of Travel Industry. As stated by Mr. Rumyantsev, this year the number of group tourists from Western countries declined by 15%, while the number of tourists from Arab and Asian countries grew by 25-30%, from China and Korea – by 45% and 24% accordingly. The influx of tourists from Turkey rose by 28%, and the tourist flow from Serbia and Romania also went up. Moreover, it is clear that the tourist flow from Western countries to St. Petersburg is getting back on track.

The director of Moscow City Pass and St. Petersburg City Pass Alexander Mityaev said that the increase of the tourist flow was mainly due to the growing number of Chinese and European tourists. Mr. Mityaev pointed out that among those who buy the City Pass in St. Petersburg one in five is a tourist from China, although the company is just starting to work with this country.