In St. Petersburg, the guests have already seen the Catherine Palace with the Amber Room, the Hermitage, Kronstadt, walked through the center of St. Petersburg and took part in the celebration of Carnival on the “Island of the Strong”. Today, according to plans – Peterhof with the Grand Palace.
In the first group – people of different ages, different professions. They recruited those who wanted to go very quickly, although the trip cannot be called economical. There are no chartered planes yet and they paid a lot for visas, around 150 dollars. (But soon, everyone hopes, groups will be able to come visa-free.)
As Russian tour operators told RG, hotels are already being actively booked for future groups from China. Book three or four star hotels. As for the program, the priority, as it was before and still is, is a tour combined with a visit to the “Two Capitals” – Moscow and St. Petersburg. Moving between cities – by train. A typical program in the northern capital is designed for five days (four nights).
Mass tourism from China will significantly increase the load on the most popular museums in St. Petersburg and its suburbs. Including – the Catherine Palace in Pushkin.
As the press service of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve told RG, before the pandemic, foreign tourists accounted for 55 percent of the total tourist flow, and among them there was a large proportion of guests from China. To streamline the flow, a new visitor reception system has been developed with a significant proportion of electronic ticket reservations. It allows you to see the Catherine Palace and the Amber Room without queuing. Online ticket sales begin seven days before the scheduled date of the visit.