St Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko has confirmed that to attract more tourists in St Petersburg, plans are being put together to build recreational camps. City leaders in St Petersburg plan to build campgrounds for tourists, who cannot afford to stay in expensive hotels. City officials have already been allocated eight plots ranging from 1 to 10 hectares (from 2.5 to 25 acres). Land will be leased for 15 years. 2-3 thousand cars should be able to park at the campsites, and there will be approximately the same number of places for people to stay. Published information on six companies has revealed that they have an interest in constructing the campgrounds.

According to statistics, in 2010, St Petersburg was visited by more than 5 million tourists. Plans are in place to increase that number to 8.1 million by 2016. Accommodation in camp is very popular in many European countries. For example, in neighboring country “Finland” there is a large number of campsites. In Russia, however, parks and recreational business involving leisure activities has developed poorly thus far.

By Marcus Kennedy