The number of visitors arrriving to the Russian city of St Petersburg by sea exceeded the total number of foreign visitors fivefold last year, fresh data shows.
In 2013a number of foreign touristsin St. Petersburg and Leningrad region reached 3 million people, which is a 2% increase from 2012. According to the Federal Migration Service in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region data in 2013 2.12 million foreign tourists have been put on record in St. Petersburg hotels, which is a 3% increase from 2012, says St Peter Line, the Russian cruise ferry company..
A number of tourists arriving to Saint Petersburg by sea cruise ships and ferries – 573 thousand people – in 2013 has increased by 11% compared to 2012 (see Table 1).
For 10 years from 2004 to 2013 a number of foreign tourists visiting St. Petersburg has doubled from 1.5 million to 3 million people a year.
In 2013, as usually, the majority of tourists came from the largest European countries: Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, as well as from the U.S.A. and Japan. In the last few years China has become one of the leaders in this list: in 2013 it was over 240 thousand Chinese tourists. An increase in tourist traffic causes developing and construction of new infrastructure objects (the new passenger port Marine Facade, the Pulkovo airport), attracts new carriers (for example, in 2013 12 airlines came to St. Petersburg).
According to Petrostat info (see Tables 2, 3), in 2013:
- The volume of tourism paid services to the population increased by 10% compared with 2012 and amounted to 7,941 million rubles;
- The volume of paid services providing by hotels and similar accommodation facilities increased by 12% and amounted to 13,776 million rubles.
Within the framework of the project “My Russia: the City of Peter”, made by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, more than 18,000 school students from 28 Russian regions visited St. Petersburg in the period from October to December 2013.
The best Saint Petersburg tour operators organized children staying in the city. Students visited the main historically significant sights of Saint Petersburg and the suburbs. The service quality was appreciated by students and their parents.
Sea cruise tourism is an important feature and advantage of St. Petersburg over many European tourism centers.
Promoting St. Petersburg as a cruise destination is making in order to attract tourists and cruise companies, for better capacity utilization of the Marine Facade passenger port and increasing revenues from cruise tourism.
To achieve this goal, the Committee established a working group with the participation of state and business structures . A decision on the representation of St. Petersburg on a single stand cruise specialized exhibitions.
With the support of the Committee of the Management Company “Marine Façade” in St. Petersburg held a meeting with representatives of the 8 ports of the Baltic Sea (Copenhagen, Tallinn , Stockholm , etc.), which discussed the proposal to reduce by 50% the cost of cruise ships in the period from October to May to enhance the attractiveness of the Baltic ports . The proposal was supported by the Marine Facade .
On the initiative and with the assistance of the Committee ferry operator St. PeterLine from April 2014 began an advertising campaign on Euronews TV-channel in Scandinavia , Holland and Germany . In addition to information about St. Petersburg, promotional film tells about the possibility of visa-free visit to the city within 72 hours .
The working group of market participants apart from the immediate sea cruises representatives the Pulkovo airport for joint marketing activities for the positioning of St. Petersburg as a starting point for exploring the Baltic Sea.
