St. Petersburg is rightfully considered not only the cultural, but also the tourist capital of our country. Every year, millions of people from all regions of Russia come to the Northern capital to admire the impeccable architectural ensembles, visit some of the best museums in the world, see the opening of bridges on a ghostly white night, walk along the streets and embankments and feel the spirit of the great city. More than nine million tourists visited here in 2023 alone, which is almost twice the city’s population.
An experiment in charging tourists a resort fee started in Russia back in 2018
The pioneers in introducing the collection were the Stavropol, Krasnodar and Altai territories, and from April 1, 2024, the federal city of St. Petersburg joined them. We will tell you in detail what it is, how and how much you will need to pay, and who is exempt from paying the fee.
The idea of a resort fee did not arise yesterday. At the beginning of the last century, Italy and France began collecting fees from tourists in popular resort areas in order to compensate for the load on tourist and urban infrastructure, which increased significantly during the high season. This made it possible to replenish local budgets with funds that were used for further development and improvement of the tourism industry. By the end of the 20th century, the collection of resort fees, with slight differences, became commonplace in almost all popular tourist areas in Europe.
In 1933, our country also introduced a mandatory resort tax for everyone, exempting only military and low-income citizens from payment. Later, it underwent changes, becoming a duty on travel packages, but remained mandatory for tourists traveling individually. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the law on resort fees reappeared in 1991, but due to difficult economic conditions it remained on paper, and in 2004 it finally lost its force.
How and how much to pay
So, the resort fee is a fee for using the infrastructure. Who charges this fee? The law assigns this responsibility to accommodation facilities, that is, hotels, hostels, guest houses and other establishments that provide hotel services.
Entrepreneurs or legal entities that provide tourist accommodation services are collection operators
Adult citizens are required to pay a resort fee in addition to the cost of accommodation. The fee is 100 rubles per day per person.
To calculate the total amount of the fee, you need to multiply the number of days each person actually stays in the hotel, sanatorium or boarding house, excluding the day of arrival, by the amount of the fee. You will be offered to pay for it upon check-in, but this can be done later, the main thing is to do it before departure. The operator is obliged to issue you a document confirming the fact of payment.
IN article 7, Part 1 of Federal Law No. 214-FZ lists categories of citizens who are exempt from paying the resort fee upon presentation of the original document confirming the right to the benefit, or its certified copy.
To date, 21 preferential categories of citizens have been approved in St. Petersburg
In accordance with Federal legislation, full-time students of St. Petersburg universities, as well as property owners, even if they do not have local registration, also do not pay a resort fee. Additionally, members of large families are exempt from paying the resort fee.
For the convenience of tourists in St. Petersburg, instructions have been developed, where all the necessary information about this payment is clearly presented in infographic format.
Use of resort fee
As mentioned above, the resort fee is an effective way to attract additional funds to the budget of the subject, which will create a comfortable tourist space and optimally develop it in the future.
The collected funds are expected to be used for the modernization of existing tourist infrastructure, repair and reconstruction of historical buildings, monuments and small architectural objects, arrangement of pedestrian zones, parks and embankments, as well as the creation of new points of attraction for tourists. It is important to improve the service and improve the quality of the information environment.
The first meeting of the Public Council on Resort Fees has already taken place, at which preliminary plans for the use of funds that are expected to be collected were discussed. In particular, they discussed the improvement of two popular beaches in the Kurortny district, the restoration of the Moscow Triumphal Gate and the creation of a fountain in the Linear Park in the Vasileostrovsky district, which will become another object of the new tourist geography of St. Petersburg. Later, the list of objects for which the collected funds will be used will be approved by the government of the Northern capital.
It should be noted that in recent years the tourist structure in the city has been developing at a rapid pace, making a visit to St. Petersburg not only interesting and educational, but also comfortable and safe. A huge number of tourist routes for every taste and budget, the ability to calculate your budget in advance and plan your trip by booking hotels, buying tickets to theaters and museums online, bypassing queues – planning a trip to the cultural capital has become easy and convenient. And you can always find out about the opening of new interesting objects and tourist routes on the website Visit Petersburg
So does the city need a resort fee? Undoubtedly, it is necessary, since it is aimed at developing tourism infrastructure. This is primarily the improvement and maintenance
of existing facilities, as well as the creation of new, no less attractive and interesting ones. And what is important, the tourist becomes involved in all these changes, sees where the collected funds are spent, and feels his personal contribution to the development and transformation of the country.
Brief information
Resort fees were introduced on the territory of a number of constituent entities of the Russian Federation by law dated July 29, 2017. No. 214-FZ “On conducting an experiment on the development of resort infrastructure.”
Federal Law of December 5, 2022 No. 489-FZ of St. Petersburg is included in the experiment on the development of resort infrastructure.
According to the Law of St. Petersburg dated June 28, 2023. No. 419-81 “On the introduction of a resort tax on the territory of St. Petersburg”, a resort tax with a zero rate was introduced from October 1, 2023. From April 1, 2024, a resort fee of 100 rubles per person per day begins to be collected.
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