Yacht Tourism Connects Russian Capitals
By Yevgeny Rozhkov
Special to The St. Petersburg Times
For The St. Petersburg Times
The operators of Palace Cruise hope to develop yacht tourism in Russia. St. Petersburg is already a popular cruise destination. |
The first river yacht route, Dvortsovy Kruiz (Palace Cruise), opened Saturday, connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg on a trial basis through July 12 as part of the Annual Yacht Festival. If there is enough demand, it will make the coast even clearer for the cruise business in Russia’s northwest, and river yachts will run regularly, says Sergei Akulenko, CEO of Marinacomplex, the local company responsible for berthing, fuel and food supply. About 10 yacht owners have taken an interest in the 1,350-kilometer Palace Cruise along the Volga-Baltic waterway, into which Marinacomplex has invested 50,000 euros. Alexander Kamelin, the Chief Officer of Sea and River Vessels Inspection in St. Petersburg, says not all vessels can qualify to operate the route. “There are 780 registered small vessels, and only 40 are sailing yachts.” Andrei Berezkin, the vice-president of the St. Petersburg passenger vessel owners association, thinks the route has a future if some transportation and legal issues are solved. “About 150,000 tourists travel by boat between Moscow and St. Petersburg every year. But the lack of fuelling quays may be a major problem for yachtsmen.” The construction of fuelling quays for river vessels is unprofitable, with summer being the main season for sailing, Berezkin said. There are also limitations on foreign cruise boats, which are currently prohibited by law from navigating Russian waters. This may change soon, as according to the Partnership Agreement signed during the Russia-EU summit in Lisbon, Portugal in October 2006, Russia confirmed its intention to allow foreign ships to sail in domestic waters, making river yacht tourism another promising alternative to sea cruise tourism, which has been rapidly developing around the globe for a decade, doubling passenger numbers from six million in 1995 to 14 million in 2004, and a predicted 17 million in 2010. The cruise business boom in St. Petersburg took off in 2000. According to the northwestern branch of the Russian Tourism Business Union, the city dominates in the Baltic area, welcoming 16 percent of all cruise ship tourists in the Baltic area, leaving behind internationally renowned sea ports such as Tallinn (15 percent), Copenhagen (13 percent), Stockholm and Helsinki (12 percent each). In this way, Russia could make up for losses incurred by the cancellation of regular ferry routes from Estonia and Finland in 2005 and still see an increasing number of visitors. The new Morskoi Fasad (Maritime Facade) sea terminal will also facilitate the process. Started in 2006, the terminal is due to open its two berths in September 2008 and when completed by 2012 it will receive about 12,000 passengers a day from a third of all ships — both cruise liners and ferries up to 311 meters in size — docking in St. Petersburg. Princess Cruises, one of the premier cruise lines in the world, has doubled its routes to St. Petersburg and, according to Susanne Ferral, the company’s PR manager, the company expects the number of tourists to leap by tens of thousands in the future. The Star Princess berthed in the city twelve times in 2007, carrying 2,600 passengers each time. This summer the Crown Princess with 3,070 passengers and the Royal Princess with 710 passengers will operate the route, bringing a total of 42,500 visitors to St. Petersburg.
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