St Petersburg Scores 100 Points in Digital Hospitality Study, Surpassing 23 Other Russian Cities
A trip to St Petersburg can be almost entirely organised using a smartphone: purchasing museum tickets, paying for transport, finding free Wi-Fi, and ordering a taxi. This level of digitalisation has enabled the city to score a perfect 100 out of 100 and secure first place in a study on digital hospitality conducted by experts from the Presidential Academy. The study assessed how independently a tourist could plan a trip using online services, without resorting to ticket offices or paper documents.
The study involved 24 Russian cities. Experts evaluated ten typical activities associated with travel: information search, ticket purchase, museum visits, transport payment, Wi-Fi connection, and the use of other urban services. Each activity was scored from 0 to 10, depending on how fully it was accessible in digital format.
In St Petersburg, electronic tickets for the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, and St Isaac’s Cathedral are accepted directly from a smartphone screen. Tourists can book guided tours online, access a map of free Wi-Fi hotspots, and track public transport. Travel fares can be paid using a bank card or via a QR code, and taxis can be ordered through an app. This way, the key stages of a trip can be managed without the need to visit ticket offices or tourist centres in person.
However, even the leader of the ranking has certain limitations. For instance, it is not possible to pay for multiple passengers on a tram or trolleybus using a single bank card. An adult travelling with a child will need separate cards or a «Podorozhnik» transport card.
By comparison, Kazan was ranked among the cities sharing sixth place. It received high marks for ticket purchasing, paying for transport, and ordering taxis, but lost points due to the lack of an official list of free Wi-Fi hotspots, difficulties connecting to networks, and the requirement to exchange an electronic ticket for the Kazan Kremlin for a paper one.
Research results indicate that digital hospitality is composed of numerous everyday details. For tourists, it is not merely the availability of city apps that matters, but the ability to seamlessly navigate the entire journey: from trip planning and ticket purchase to visiting a museum and returning to the hotel. St Petersburg has proven to be the only city capable of providing this experience across all evaluation criteria.
In the first nine months of 2026, the number of tourist trips by foreigners to Russia increased by 3.45%. Moreover, over half of the international bookings at Russian hotels made via the Yandex Travel platform were attributed to visitors from China.
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