Dramatic rise expected in 2004 in number of tourists visiting Saint Petersburg

A dramatic rise in the number of tourists visiting Saint Petersburg is expected in 2004. This was announced by Deputy Governor of Saint Petersburg Alexander Prokhorenko at a press conference at the international press centre yesterday.

He said that Saint Petersburg is able to cater for up to 5.5 million tourists a year. 'Celebrating the city's anniversary is a great advertisement for Saint Petersburg and next year the level of interest in the city will be even higher,' said Mr Prokhorenko. 'We intend to increase the number of hotels and make the city more visitor-friendly,' he added.

A million tourists visited Saint Petersburg in 2002 including 59,000 Italians, which is 15,000 more than in 2001.