Ferry and cruise routes towards port Saint-Petersburg need an integrated and coordinated promotion at international tourism market under a common brand. This opinion was advanced by Oleg Markov, Vice-Governor of Saint-Petersburg, at the round table meeting “New projects in the market of passenger transportation” arranged by media group PortNews.
He also underlined that port infrastructure being used in the city for accepting marine passengers should be used with equal distribution of load. Currently, passenger ships and ferries are handled at the Neva embankments, passenger terminal and passenger port of Saint-Petersburg (Marine Façade).
“We should not compete with each other, said Serik Zhusupov, President of Marine Façade. – We should create a single tourism product adequate for Saint-Petersburg, marine capital of Russia”.
The meeting participants have discussed the plans on further development of passenger traffic segment in Saint-Petersburg. In 2014, the flow via passenger port of Saint-Petersburg may surge by 10%, year-on-year, to 550,000 passengers. In 2013, 254 vessels are expected to call on the Marine Façade terminal.
In late 2015, port Bronka is to launch regular ferry service to the ports of Germany. According to Aleksey Shukletsov, Executive Director of Bronka project investor Fenix LLC, new ferry service between Saint-Petersburg and Lubeck (Germany) will take 36 hours while today it takes 60 hours to get to Germany.