What all-season resorts will appear in St. Petersburg
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Vladimir Putin was surprised by the low popularity of St. Petersburg among tourists. According to him, the city is in last place among the top three. The President listed the main attractions of the Northern capital and asked its Governor Alexander Beglov why regions where there are no such museums and palaces attract more tourists.
The conversation took place at a meeting dedicated to the creation of federal year-round seaside resorts. One of these is expected to appear in St. Petersburg. They are planning to build an entire resort city on the coast of the Gulf of Finland; the project is called “St. Petersburg Marina”. The total territory of the cluster will be 160 hectares, and the length of the coastline will be more than 4 km. By the sea there will be theme parks, an ice skating rink, a tennis court, areas for yachts, a swimming pool and much more.
According to Governor Beglov, investments in the project will exceed 200 billion rubles. In total, in the next six years, several year-round resorts will appear in the country: on the Baltic, Azov, Black, Caspian and Japanese seas. Together they will be able to receive at least 10 million tourists.
However, lovers of sea holidays are unlikely to go on vacation to the Baltic. The northern capital is usually chosen for short city walks, noted Irina Manuilskaya, head of the sales department of the travel company Sodis: “In terms of popularity, Sochi is in first place, Altai is in second, Kamchatka is in third, and St. Petersburg is in fourth. If we are talking about seaside resorts, then, of course, the image of the Northern capital does not arise in our heads.
If this is a budget tourist and he has one vacation planned during the year, then, of course, he will go to the Krasnodar Territory, because adults want to take their children to the sea, they want to swim themselves. And St. Petersburg has other associations; it is a cultural capital.
People come there with or without children, with a girlfriend, alone, for work, or just because. And the hotels are all wonderful, and the restaurants are crazy, and the white nights, and the raising of bridges. Now, if you go somewhere quickly for the weekend, then this city is 100% in first place.”
The beach season in the Gulf of Finland lasts only about four weeks in July-August. Mostly people come to resorts near St. Petersburg to breathe the sea air and admire the harsh northern nature. But there are also all-season projects, and the demand for them is growing every year, said Gennady Musienko, general director and managing partner of the Okhta Park resort in the Leningrad region:
“A modern resort in the climate of our northwestern region must include all-season areas. For a seaside resort, this could include sports and rowing pools, indoor areas for beach sports, SPA complexes, and water parks.
This will undoubtedly attract additional tourist flow. There is no doubt that such a project will be very popular in the summer.
Today in St. Petersburg there are not many places where there is a full-fledged comfortable beach infrastructure. Using the example of our Okhta Park resort, we see a great desire of visitors to relax by the water; interest in this format of recreation is very great. And the annual increase in the number of guests averages about 10-20%.”
According to Smolny forecasts, the additional tourist flow after the opening of St. Petersburg Marina will exceed 1.3 million people. In 2023, the city was visited by 9.5 million tourists, which is close to the pre-pandemic level. For comparison, almost 2.5 times more guests came to Moscow last year, about 25 million: 80% of them were Russians themselves, and the incoming tourist flow was provided by travelers from China, India, the Middle East and post-Soviet countries.
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