Every seventh tourist in St. Petersburg is from China

“In 2017, St. Petersburg hosted nearly one million Chinese tourists. And this is not the limit”, -believe in the city government. According to preliminary data of 2017 with January holidays, St. Petersburg will be visited by more than 7.5 million tourists and every second of them will be a foreigner. In 2016, the Northern Capital reported about 6.9 million tourists, in 2015 - about 6.5 million. As the Chairman of the city committee for the development of tourism Andrei Mushkarev said at a press conference, for the last few years for the first time tourist traffic to St. Petersburg grew owing to foreign guests. Inside the tourist flow the visa-free travelers from China are the leaders: about a million of them have arrived in the city in 2017. Thus, almost every seventh tourist in the city is from China and if you count only among foreign guests - every third. According to Mushkarev, PRC citizens spend about $ 200 in St. Petersburg, while tourists from other countries - about $ 120. The potential growth of foreign traffic to St. Petersburg is also seen on the markets of India and Iran (especially India - in the case of signing an intergovernmental agreement on visa-free group exchange). By this time, the number of Indian tourists in St. Petersburg is estimated at the level of 15-20 thousand people per year. Nevertheless, the city is also notes the returning of tourists from traditional markets: from the USA (+ 19%), Germany (+14%) and Scandinavian countries (+3-4%).