Tour operators note the increase of interest towards Saint-Petersburg as the 2014 Olympics draw near

The summer season turned out to be quite successful for inbound tourism in Saint-Petersburg. The overall count is estimated to be around 5.7 million people this year, with 2.5 million foreign tourists and 3.2 million Russian visitors. According to Ilya Ilyukhin, the Acting Head of the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade of Saint Petersburg, the number of inbound tourists will increase to 7 million by 2015. Development of the hotel base, the functioning of passenger sea port and the building of a new terminal at Pulkovo airport will all make this possible.

Tour operators note the 7-10% increase in sales with the 10% increase in tour prices. Many companies agree that the interest towards Saint Petersburg and Russia is increasing due to the upcoming 2014 Olympics.

Market representatives believe that the tourist flow is not really shifting in any direction. Yet they note the increase in individual trips. Europeans started coming to Saint Petersbugn in groups of 2-3 or with their families, instead of visiting the city in big tourist groups. The real sensation of the season is the appearance of upper-class Indian tourists. Many companies made a nice profit on the first wave of these visitors and decided to explore this new market. Experts say that India is a country with a rapidly developing economy and by 2020 it can provide the world with 50 million tourists. For instance, Australia (which is on the same distance from India as Russia) received 148 thousand Indian tourists in 2011. These tourists spent 867 million Australian dollars during their stay.

All the receiving companies in Saint Petersburg constantly offer new sights, new routes and ideas for excursions to their foreign colleagues, but the latter are not really hyped about these proposals. For instance, the new contemporary art museum Erarta is being advertised by all the tour operators, yet the museum has trouble forming even small groups of visitors. And the problem is not in the museum’s location, collection or administration. It’s just that Erarta is a museum for young progressive city dwellers, and most of European tourists visiting Saint Petersburg are retired people from the country.

The only innovation that sits well with foreign tourists is the new format of old excursions. Like Small palaces of Petergof, interactive tours of palace parks and special programs in museums. Tour operators also note that the average price on a tour is dropping lately. So things like boat-rides on the Neva River under the famous drawbridges are more likely to be considered as additional services by tourists.