New magnets for tourists

Over the last few years, Petersburg has been increasingly anxious over the growing influx of tourists. Experts unanimously assert that in order to be interesting there must be in the city not only monuments of the past, but also new cultural sites ought to appear in it.

The cities’ official points of interest are among their most famous attractions. Those are architectural masterpieces, ancient buildings, world-renowned museums, celebrated picture galleries, legendary monuments, as well as unique landscapes, parks, embankments, etc. In terms of “official” sights Saint Petersburg is a remarkably rich city.
However, the city steadily develops, bringing forth new tourist “magnets” which capitalize on popular ideas, folklore, environment, traditions and specifics of daily life. As Valery Trushin, head of the EastReal consulting department points out, there are several types of new monuments, for example self-made museums. “Those usually are private, low-cost establishments set up by companies or funded by relevant enterprises. They seldom become a self-sufficient place of interest. More often, they serve as a supplementary tourist attraction. For example, the People’s Literary Museum of Ostap Bender, Theater Museum of Fairy Tales, a similarly oriented TARABUM interactive theatre museum of cartoons, the Beer Museum (on the site of the Stepan Razin Brewery), Russian Vodka Museum (Konnogvardeisky Boulevard), the Thrills of St Petersburg Entertainment Museum, the Museum of Water, Sigmund Freud Museum of Dreams and others,” names Mr.Trushin. The new attractions may also include folklore monuments. In addition to traditional monuments and sculptural compositions dedicated to outstanding historical events or persons, the urban space increasingly witnesses the appearance of small beautiful or funny monuments whose subjects are inspired by well known literary works, local folklore or special events of the regional history. Sometimes they are devoted just to some famous people. For instance, there is a monument to Chizhik-Pyzhik (a nickname for students in general and learners of anything in particular).
The attraction points can also be generated by the environment. These are the so called “public spaces”, i.e. places where life gurgles and where it is pleasing to be both for the city’s residents and its guests. Usually, they crop up spontaneously (the Old Town in Prague, Alexanderplatz in Berlin), but sometimes they can be planned in advance as public places. Some place may get promotion due to the subcultures and gatherings of informal youth. In this case it becomes a haunt for those seeking where to spend their free time. In St Petersburg, the New Holland summer project can be regarded as an attempt to create such a place.
Vitaly Nikiforovsky, vice-president of the Springald, group of companies, says: “I recently visited Estonia and watched how each place of interest can be made into a sight sellable at a profit to tourists. The recipe is simple: you just take a more or less interesting place, be it three fancily growing pines or an old shed of wheeled implements, or a mill that actually mills flour, and outfit the place with pointers and guidelines, and establish a cafe nearby offering souvenirs and this sort of thing and … here we are… the place draws tourists because they enjoy the adequate infrastructure.
Petersburg is per se a place of interest. However, do you know much about places where the tourist infrastructure is up to the mark? We have a huge amount of really interesting places, but do nothing about their infrastructure. Our interesting architectural objects are interspaced with utterly decayed guest houses differing from the mass-scale prefabricated structures only in manufacture year. Besides, there are streets where one will not find a cafe for having a cup of coffee, to say nothing of buying a souvenir. If we wish to have more interesting places in our city, we should ponder if it is not high time to start creating their infrastructure. Simultaneously we should tackle the issue of housing unfit for habitation in the historic parts of the city. After all, St Petersburg of Fyodor Dostoyevsky is not a particularly pleasing place to live.”
Natalia Suslova, director-general of the Reputatsiya (Reputation) communications agency, says that new points of interest do appear in St Petersburg, increasingly gaining popularity: “Among the latest noticeable projects is the model of Russia, implemented by a private investor at his own expense. I find it difficult to appraise the profitability of this business, but such outstanding projects can draw attention to a specific territory and promote its development”.

An opinion:

Pavel Goncharov, vice-president of the Russian guild of managers and developers:

- Attraction points are created, somehow or other, everywhere across the globe, and some of them are very interesting. For example, HafenCity in Hamburg, a project for redeveloping the port’s site on which a new futuristic district is being built with culture amenities, including a new opera theatre. Good examples of it are a satellite town of Kuala Lumpur into which all state institutions had been transferred and the Millennium Bridge in London. Practically all the cities of the world have their skyscrapers with observation decks. These new attractions become popular haunts among both residents and tourists.