The development of Saint-Petersburg as a tourist centre
Saint-Petersburg is rightfully considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and one which has a special style and unique atmosphere
The official tourist portal of Saint-Petersburg can be seen at:
visit-petersburg.ru
Tourism is an actively developing area which has a significant impact on many other branches of the city economy, and which contributes to an improvement in the quality of the urban environment as a whole.
In 2005, the government of the city passed a development program for Saint-Petersburg as a tourist centre, the purpose was for the development of tourism and for an improvement in the tourist infrastructure in Saint-Petersburg.
In order to create comfortable conditions for staying in the city, the following were created and are under ongoing development:
- The City tourist-information centre and a network of tourist information kiosks;
- “The Angel Service” - a mobile service providing information support for tourists;
- The Contact-centre is a multilingual call-centre for tourists and inhabitants of the city, tel. +7 (812) 300-33-33 or 0333 (this is free of charge for guests, and for subscribers of the Megaphone mobile network);
- the excursion bus program “City Tour”
The results of the implementation of the development
of St. Petersburg as a tourist centre in 2005-2010
The Programme for the development of St. Petersburg as a tourist destination based on the selected city were in the strategy of a "Breakthrough" type and were quite ambitious.
Despite the global crisis in the global tourism industry and the budget constraints imposed, we were able to keep up the pace with previous years and to welcome 5.1 million visitors to Saint Petersburg in 2010.
The main objective set by the Programme has been achieved - the tourist flow has exceeded 5 million in number.
The total investment of St. Petersburg in the development of tourism within the framework of the Programme from 2006 to 2010 amounted to 519 million rubles.
In this case, estimating the revenues for the industry only in 2010, we can state the following figures:
- the contribution of tourists to the city's economy (in the form of direct costs excluding costs for their arrival in St. Petersburg, Russia) according to expert estimates this year amounted to more than 215 billion rubles.
Thus, for each ruble invested into the Programme, the city's economy has received more than 2,400 rubles back.