Publishing House SB RAS:

Publishing House SB RAS:

Address of the Publishing House SB RAS:
Morskoy pr. 2, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia



Advanced Search

Geography and Natural Resources

2019 year, number 4

TOURISM AS AN ELEMENT OF ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION IN YAMALO-NENETS AUTONOMOUS OKRUG

R.A. KOLESNIKOV, R.I. LOKTEV
Arctic Research Center, 629007, Salekhard, ul. Respubliki, 73, Russia
roman387@mail.ru
Keywords: туризм и рекреация, регионы Арктики, территориальная специализация, региональное развитие, северный (арктический) туризм, дестинация, tourism and recreation, Arctic regions, territorial specialization, regional development, northern (Arctic) tour ism, destination

Abstract

We examine the current state of the tourism industry in one of the Arctic regions of Russia, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The necessity and possibility of diversifying the economy of the resource-producing regions of the North through the promotion and development of tourism is substantiated. The main problems hindering the development of Arctic (northern) tour ism are identified. It is found that tourism, as a full-fledged sector yielding significant budget revenues of different levels, has not yet been firmly established in the Arctic zone of Russia. There are a significant disparity of tourism development, a lack of uni fied tourist space and of the integration interaction between Arctic regions as well as within separate regions. Analysis of the economic and geographical location of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug showed that there are competitive advantages of the region in the form of an advantageous transport-geographical and tourist-geographical locations. An assessment is made of the prospects for tourism development in comparison with the development of the other sectors. It is established that the infrastructure projects being implemented contribute to the development of tourism; however, the existing economic structure, oriented only toward the development of raw-material extracting industries, is a barrier to the development of tourism as one of the leading sectors of territorial specialization. As part of this research, it was possible to develop and suggest proposals for remedying the existing situation. Economic, administrative and information mechanisms are suggested, which are aimed at the formation of the tourism industry permitting a restructuring of the economy of the regions in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. It is de termined that the formation of the tourism industry has a favorable influence on employment and income of the indigenous population, primarily leading a traditional way of life. Data on the main tourist-recreational resources and their distribution in the municipalities of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug have been obtained and systematized.