Photo credit: piter-visa.ru
Foreign tourists now have the opportunity to visit St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region with electronic visas. The special regime has begun to operate on October 1, TASS reports.
Electronic visas are available to citizens of fifty-three countries, the list of which was approved by the head of the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev. President Vladimir Putin ordered the introduction of the relevant regime in July.
Permission to enter the territory of the Russian Federation is issued for a period of thirty days, but you can stay in Russia for no more than eight days. An electronic visa is issued free of charge based on the application of a foreign citizen. It must be submitted four days before the date of entry. A special website has also been created for visa applications.
Electronic visas are valid for entry and exit by air, road and water transport, as well as without the use of vehicles, only at Pulkovo Airport, in sea harbors in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, at car checkpoints Ivangorod, Torfyanovka, Brucnichnoe, Svetogorsk and at the pedestrian checkpoint Ivangorod.
According to experts, with the introduction of electronic visas, the number of tourists in St. Petersburg will increase to twelve million people annually. Now this figure exceeds eight million.
The Federal Tourism Agency is sure that the city is fully prepared for the new regime. St. Petersburg takes a leading place in many ratings of tourist attractiveness in Europe and in the world.
Electronic visas will allow the city to develop event-driven and weekend tourism. The tourist season will cover all seasons, as travelers will be invited to the New Year holidays and Maslenitsa.
Now the main goal is to disseminate information on the electronic visa mechanism. The St. Petersburg administration has already prepared a memo, which tells about the rules for obtaining visas.
Russkiy Mir
