St. Petersburg starts to launch tourist information centres abroad

St. Petersburg will become a leader among Russian regions being the first to launch independent tourist information centres in other countries. The first of them is to be opened in Paris with 'Visit Petersburg' brand name just in a day or two. By the year-end, at least 10 similar centres will have been established in several European countries, as well as in China and India.

According to Andrei Mushkarev, head of St. Petersburg Committee on Tourism Development, such innovations will raise awareness of international tourists and contribute to a higher flow of tourists to the city on the Neva, including those who are on trips arranged specifically to St. Petersburg, and who arrive here as part of their tours of Russia. Authorities are expecting a higher tourist traffic in 2017 compared to the previous year, both in general and in terms of a share of international travellers compare to national tourists. As for a longer term, period of seven years, the tourist flow is expected to double (13 million people compared to 6.9 million in 2016).

A significant thing in this process is that the management project of tourist information centres abroad is funded under the public-private partnership scheme. St. Petersburg city budget will not allocate funds for it.