Over 5.5 million tourists visited Saint Petersburg last year,
which is 13% more than in 2010, reported to Interfax the Vice-President of the
Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI) and the Director of the union's
North-West Regional Department, Sergey Korneev. “This positive dynamics more or
less remains from the beginning of 2000s. About 10% growth can be expected in the
upcoming season. It’s difficult to make the forecasts more exact as there are a
lot of external factors in the world influencing tourism”, - noted Mr. Korneev.
According to him, a lot of tourists from
China, where at present a
Year of Russian Tourism is held, will come to St. Petersburg this year. “We don’t lay a lot
of our hopes on Europe because of the crisis –
they intent to travel more within their countries. However there should be no downturn
comparing to previous years, because St. Petersburg is a European city, a part
of a standard European travel route”, - specified the Vice-President of RTU.
Besides, there can be growth from
Scandinavian side due to the development of transportation. “When the ferry to Helsinki has just been
launched, 70% of passengers were Russians. Today they’re half Russians, half
Finnish, as well as Europeans coming to our city”, - said Sergey Korneev. St. Petersburg is also popular with citizens of those
countries that have visa free regime with Russia.
