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Petersburg: We’re Expecting Company
Petersburg: We’re Expecting Company
The TripAdvisor portal has recently published a rating of the most attractive tourist destinations: Petersburg took the 7th place in Europe and entered the top-25, being on the 20th position.
According to UNESCO, Petersburg is legally considered one of the greatest centers of world and Russian culture, where unique cultural and historic legacy is concentrated. In the UNESCO’s list of the most popular and attractive cities of the world the northern capital of Russia is on the 8th place. And this is quite explainable, as son as more than 80% of monuments of the XVIII-XIX centuries here are originals, and those included in the list of the World Heritage Sites are 36 complex objects uniting 4 thousand of outstanding architectural, historic and cultural monuments. Almost 150 museums, 65 theatres and more than 10 thousand of sights (including almost 8,5 thousand of them are protected by the government) – all these attract tourists from all over the world to St.-Petersburg.
Looking in Perspective
Understanding the importance of receiving guests on an appropriate quality level in the city they're trying to do their best for the guests to wish to return...
In the middle of the year 2011 a new tourism development program was approved in Petersburg. The main guidelines of the six-year period (from 2011 to 2016) were increase of the incoming tourist flow to 81 mln people and of the average tourist stay period to 5 days.
Experts closely connect this new program of tourism development in the city upon Neva with an increase of return visits, as well as with overcoming the factor of “seasonality” which still plays a significant role in the decrease of the number of guests during the “low” season. It is now only about traditional tourism development but as well of that of event and congress tourism, alongside with organization of new accommodation, entertainment and leisure facilities. And water tourism (which includes ferry-cruise and yacht-cutter) is specially highlighted. The city’s authorities are planning to give them special priority.
Namely, in the nearest future much more attention will bу paid at development of infrastructure for receiving yacht tourists. “It is necessary to be able to receive such boats, to create comfortable conditions for yacht tourism development”, they state in Smolny. Within the framework of the new program the idea of creating a camping network for those travelling by car, aimed at foreign tourists, will be put in practice. For these goals 8 land lots are already reserved by the city authorities: Peterburg will become the first city in Russia to have such a network.
Within the framework of the program it is also planned to broaden the range of services associated with tourism, to enforce the measures of protection of tourists, to develop the hotel infrastructure and to undertake a number of steps in order to improve transport accessibility of the city upon Neva.
Easy to Get There
However, even now Petersburg doesn’t present any problem to get to neither for a Russian citizen, nor for a foreigner: the city is accessible via the sea, via the air or by land.
The city is a large rail center: trains leave to almost all the corners of Russia. It is tightly connected with Helsinki and Moscow by high-speed trains (“Allegro” and “Sapsan”): it takes only 3,5 hours to get to one of these capital from Petersburg.
The network of airlines spreads almost all over the world, and the presence of global carriers (such as “Emirates” and “Air France” and others) make Petersburg accessible even for those tourists who live tens of thousands kilometers away. In 2011 “Pulkovo” airport served more than 9 mln passengers, but already in two years required for its reconstruction this number will rise up to 14 mln. And of course, the service level will grow as well: the new airport will equal the best international ones.
But the sea still is the principal transport destination. Taking into account that at the end of May 2011 the passenger port “Morskoy Fasad” (Marine Façade) was fully put in commission, and the practice of 72 visa-free hours remains, Petersburg has all the right to expect an increase in number of cruise and ferry passengers. The year 2011 navigation has confirmed this trend: nearly 625 thousand tourists came to the northern capital of Russia via the sea. Among them 456 thousand were passengers of cruise liners (their summer navigation season ended on October 12), and 170 thousand more travelers got to the city by ferries (there’re route to Helsinki and Stockholm).
The tourist flow is evidently increasing, as soon as there were almost 15% more cruise tourists and almost 40% more ferry tourists. If take into account that from the next year small-size boats under foreign flags will be able to enter the city (the number of such tourists is approximately estimated as 40 thousand people per year), the sea is one of the easiest and affordable ways to get to Petersburg.
How Much to Spend
There’s no doubt that Petersburg is becoming more and more comfortable and friendly for guests.
Evidently, they have already got used to the “Service of Angels” – young people from its staff are ready to help tourists in any situation, street signs and information boards in metro (including those in English). In spring, 2011 a contact center was opened for Russian and foreign tourists. Serious improvement took place also in the field of tourist safety. Anyway, the city upon Neva from this prospective is no worse (and perhaps even better) than Prague or Barcelona. But there’s a problem that still hampers the inflow of guests.
At the beginning of the year 2011 the Price of Travel portal published a rating of the European cities which are the cheapest to stay in. And although Petersburg was on the 7th place there (analysts estimated a price of one day in it as $40), the sum being analyzed included only a night in the cheapest hotel, three “budget” meals, three glassed of local beer and a visit to the most popular site a day. But if you expect something more, the expenses will grow significantly. And first of all this is connected with accommodation expenses.
According to the data of the Committee on Investments and Strategic Projects of the Petersburg Government, more than 600 hotels are functioning in the city upon Neva and their overall capacity is more than 28,5 thousand rooms. And if take into account the room capacity of a range of mini hotels, as well as resorts, pensions and recreation centers in immediate proximity to the city, its total capacity has already overgrew the number of 30 thousand rooms.
The dynamics of putting into operation new hotel capacities remains stable for the recent years and is over a thousand rooms per year. With that, the part of Petersburg's hotels under international hotel operators’ management is growing (now there’re already 14 of them).
Rezidor, for example, is already “ruling” five hotels, and Marriott International, InterContinental Hotel Group and Sokos Hotels – three hotels each.
Besides the fact that in terms of numbers brand hotels make up only 5% of all Petersburg’s hotels, they dispose of nearly 7 thousand rooms (about 25%). And their share of the market continues growing: as a rule, they are large (no less than 50 rooms) hotels with the best developed modern infrastructure.
The process of brand invasion is still on: other hotel operators are planning to join the international companies already “spotted” in Petersburg. Namely, such hotel chains as Domina Hotels & Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Lotte Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Worldwide are expected to come.
Among the novelties it is worth mentioning the Crowne Plaza Airport hotel – the second hotel of this brand in Petersburg. It is a four-star business oriented hotel: alongside with 249 rooms it offers no less than 11 conference halls. And more, a restaurant, a bar, a café, health center and some “small things” like free transfer from/to the city center and airport terminals and Wi-Fi. At the beginning of the year 2012 the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts is planning to begin running the hotel in the famous “House with Lions”. In the nearest future restoration and construction works should begin on Nikolsky market: by 2013 another Crowne Plaza hotel (4 stars, 350 rooms) should appear there. And on 23, Fontanka Embankment a Korean hotel operator Lotte Group is planning to construct a five-star hotel, investing $10 mln in the project.
But staying in the hotels under international operators’ management is normally rather expensive – most of such hotels are four- or five-star. Because of that the average price of accommodation even during the low season can reach 3,5 thousand rouble (about $117). Is it possible to get the hotel comfort in Petersburg for less money? Yes, it is.
The fact is that small private hotels are very common in Petersburg. As a rule, they are located in the city center, offer appropriate living conditions and actively promote their service via the Internet – it is possible to book a room there from anywhere in the world. Yeah, they don’t have a wide infrastructure of services, but if the price is about $30 per night and there’re plenty of cafés and shops around it is not a big problem. Thus, a significant part of the guests (especially young and active people) in the recent time more and more often prefer mini hotels, the range of which is really wide and the service level in many of them is no lower than in their “big brothers”.
With that, Petersburg, being one of the popular tourist destinations as within Russia and abroad, simply can't be cheap. Because besides accommodation expenses there’re also expenses on cultural programme. The State Hermitage, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the Kunstkamera, the Russian Museum, Kazansky and Smolny Cathedrals, Peter and Paul Fortress, Petrodvorets (Petergof) and Pushkin – the admission fee to these sites is between 100 and 400 rouble ($3,3-9,9). And how to be without admiring the opening bridges? A night trip around Petersburg costs from 400 to 600 rouble ($9,9-15), as well as a tour on a water bus along the rivers and channels of the city upon Neva. And you also need to eat, use the transport and so on.
As a result, a day of “minimal” stay in Petersburg starts from $50, but it is better to estimate no less than $100-150 a day. According to the data of the Сommittee on Investments and Strategic Projects of the Petersburg Government, a foreign tourist during the stay in Petersburg leaves $1,2-1,3 thousand (local tourists – half as much), and the major part of this sum in both groups of tourists is made up with accommodation and transport expenses.
But here there’s also a possibility to reduce expenses - if you come to Petersburg during the “low” season (from October to March) and make use of packed offers of travel agencies and hotels, the expenses can get 20-25% lower. And if follow carefully the special offers of airlines and hotels, even lower…
Multifunctionality
In the new tourism development program of Petersburg MICE- tourism will get priority: in the nearest future new multifunctional complexes of an international class will appear in the city.
At the present time the city is ready to receive conferences and forums of any level as it disposes of no less than 70 objects ready to provide services for business tourism. But the number of participants of business events is usually limited by a thousand people. But the situation will soon change – multifunctional complexes (MFC) are already being constructed, which will be able to receive events with more participants, as well as provide various services at once. Such complexes often include a hotel, a trade and entertainment complex, as well as extra facilities (conference halls offices, showrooms, etc.)
One of striking examples of them is the “ExpoForum”, located in immediate proximity to “Pulkovo” airport: its official laying took place in November, 2011. But already in 2013 on the areas of “ExpoForum” the first congress and exhibition center (CEC) of the international level will open in Petersburg. This center will be able to receive European and world business events of practically any scale. The project implies construction of showrooms, a congress hall of total capacity up to 7 thousand people, two high-scale hotels, a business center and the infrastructure (stocks, customs terminal, cafés, restaurants, etc.)
The Director General of “ExpoForum” Anatoliy Yerkulov informed that agreements on management of the hotels have been signed with Hilton Worldwide. Hilton (five-star, 241 rooms) and Hamptone by Hilton (three-star, 210 rooms) branded hotels will start operating at the beginning of the year 2014. Within the hotel complex there will be also a conference hall, a business center and a sports and health center with a swimming pool. Its payback period will be about 10 years, and that of the whole “ExpoForum” – about 20 years.
If take into consideration that this complex is located near “Pulkovo”, where a business zone is being actively constructed, it can surely become a new point of attraction for MICE activity: in the next few years it is “ExpoForum” which is very likely to become the main business and exhibition center of Petersburg.
Better & More Comfortable
More good and cheap rooms in hotels. New ferry lines. Airport reconstruction. Multilingual service in the streets and on the transport. Is it all enough? Not at all. That’s why Petersburg goes further in developing services to help its guests.
Of course, one of the main problems is the necessity to apply for a visa for citizens of the major part of the European states. “This process definitely does not encourage tourist flow to Russia”, stated the head of Rosturizm (Russian Tourism) Alexander Radkov on one professional conference. “But this problem can be only solved on the base of mutual agreement between out country and the European Union”. The issue is a political one: nobody will cancel visas unilaterally. As for tourists from the West, they are not so much concerned about the price of Russia visa as about the difficulty of the procedure and the fact of its necessity itself. It cannot be passed over that a whole generation in Europe has grown up, of people who don't understand what “visa” means very well: the major part of the world is accessible for the EU citizens with no limits. And here you are to get the invitation, collect papers, pay – it’s much easier to go where you don't need a visa...
The work in this direction is already on. But it can’t be passed over that at present foreign citizens, who come to Petersburg via the sea can stay in Russia without a visa for up to 72 hours. And perhaps under pressing of the Russian business this practice will be widen to aircraft passengers as well.
All the more that tourism infrastructure in the northern capital of Russia is getting better step by step. For example, since the summer, 2011 a round-the-clock bus has been running between “Pulkovo” and the city center. Transfer is performed on comfortable buses with air conditioner, information monitors and spacious luggage shelves; boarding and drop-off point is in immediate to the airport terminals. According the organizers' statement, the shuttle bus runs according to the timetable (the interval is 20-40 minutes) and the price on the route to the city center does not exceed 200 rouble ($6,6). With that, the trip can be paid for through special stands in “Pulkovo-1” and “Pulkovo-2” by cash or a bank card. It's worth noticing that permanent railway connection of the airport with the city center (there exists several projects of it’ organization) will appear in Petersburg only by the end of the year 2013.
In 2011 in the city upon Neva appeared a way of cardinal economy on sightseeing, which is to buy a “Saint-Petersburg Guest Card”. If you buy tickets at the entrance, visits only to the main museums and a couple of guided tours will cost no less than 2,8 thousand rouble ($80). A card for three days costs 2,7 thousand rouble ($70) (the site www.spbguest.ru, where you can buy it, has an English version) and gives a right of free (i.e. without waiting) entrance to more than 20 museums (including the most popular), free round-the-city guided tours by bus or by boat. As long as a number of discounts to many other places.
There's also some other news. The Committee on Investments and Strategic Projects of the Petersburg Government intends to create a universal register of all the companies and physical persons providing services in the sphere of tourism: the information about all the participants of this market segment, i.e. about everything a tourist can be interested in, will be collected on one information resource (it will be the official tourist portal of Petersburg www.visit-petersburg.ru). And on the site www.etovidel.net there's a register of informal sites of Petersburg that includes 39 objects, among which are big complexes (such as Novaya Gollandiya (New Holland), as well as small monuments (of the Hare, etc.)
By Vladimir Sergachev
