Tourists put ₽843.1 billion into St. Petersburg’s economy in 2025 — up 15% in a year — on a hotel market whose ADR grows 14–19% annually because supply cannot follow the demand.
The city government’s final count: tourists contributed ₽843.1 billion to the economy in 2025, +15% on the year; tourism industry revenues reached ₽830 billion, +14%. Tourism is approaching 2.5% of the city’s GRP.
Hotels are the sharpest beneficiary: accommodation revenues hit ₽77.2 billion in 2024, up 32.6% — the third-largest hotel economy among Russian regions. The tourist tax added ₽902 million to the budget in its first year.
Classic hotels run ₽12,000–14,000 ADR at 65–68% occupancy, rising to 80% and +25% on rates in the summer window (NF Group / DelProf). The five-star tier — Kempinski Moika 22, Lotte, Astoria, Four Seasons Lion Palace, Grand Hotel Europe — prices from ₽20–28k.
Apart-hotels fill the middle at 75.4% occupancy; with 38% of quality supply, they now set the floor of the market.
Seventy percent of demand is leisure (the Hermitage circuit, white nights, festival calendar), twenty percent business events — SPIEF alone drew 23,500 participants from 144 countries in 2025, +8%. A market growing spend faster than guests (+15% vs +7%) is a market trading up.
Eight hundred forty-three billion rubles on twelve million trips: the per-trip yield is what matters. St. Petersburg monetises culture the way resort cities monetise beaches — with a seasonal premium, a scarcity-driven rate curve and a festival calendar that manufactures demand spikes. The tourism tax’s first ₽902 million is the city beginning to charge rent on its own brand.
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