A trip to St. Petersburg may cost tourists less
According to Interfax, the management of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg (Peter and Paul Fortress) decided to reduce the cost of servicing foreign tourists from April 1, 2009 to 170 rubles (previously the ticket cost 190 rubles), and for Russians to 130 rubles (previously 150 rubles). In addition, the State Hermitage postponed the adjustment of entrance ticket prices planned for May and will keep the previous prices for travel companies working with foreign tourists until August.
The Rossiya airline responded to the call of the North-Western branch of the RST to reduce prices. For the upcoming summer season, it has developed a number of proposals to support the tourism market of St. Petersburg. First of all, this is a maximally flexible tariff policy for the formation and provision of tour operator prices, which generally allows us to talk about an overall reduction in tariffs by an average of 20%. In addition, GTK Rossiya plans to organize, together with the North-Western branch of the RST, familiarization trips to St. Petersburg for foreign tour operators with transportation at the airline's expense.
According to Irina Tyurina, an agreement was reached between the City Committee on Informatization, the Committee on Investments and Strategic Projects, the St. Petersburg Information and Analytical Center, and the North-Western branch of the RST to keep the cost of the 'Electronic Courier' service at last year's level - a system for registering foreign tourists. This is a high-tech and expensive development commissioned by the authorities of St. Petersburg and significantly facilitating hotels' registration of guests for migration records. More than 300 city hotels are connected to the system, including many cheap hotels in St. Petersburg. Despite the fact that the cost of its operation has increased significantly, tourists and hotels will not have to pay more than last year.