Tourism

This chapter discusses the tourism and heritage preservation issues of Northern Eurasia/the former Soviet Union (FSU). As Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson famously said, “Each nation has three kinds of wealth: material, cultural, and biological.” Cultural and biological features attract visitors, both domestic and foreign. Unquestionably, the FSU has a treasure trove of both natural and cultural landmarks; however, the tourism potential of this vast landmass is greatly underused. A combination of physical and cultural geographic factors makes the region one of the least visited by international tourists today, and even domestic tourism remains underdeveloped. For much of the 20th century, the U.S.S.R. was a forbidden terrain behind the Iron Curtain. It allowed few foreigners in, and those were tightly chaperoned by Intourist agents and allowed to visit only a dozen or so destinations. Domestic tourism did exist, but with the decline of the Soviet state, much of the infrastructure for it deteriorated rapidly. After independence, every republic went a separate way, none (with the notable exception of Estonia) making development of tourism a high priority. Although some FSU nations now have vibrant domestic tourism (Russia and Kazakhstan), others have internal conflicts that make tourism highly problematic (Georgia, Armenia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan), and still others simply do not have the resources or political goodwill to invest more in tourism. Whatever the reasons, few republics attract the foreign tourists proportionate to their potential.

Two big factors besides lack of governmental involvement are size and location. The FSU is very large and very remote. For example, if visiting famous Lake Baikal is an objective, an American needs to spend 10 hours on a plane just to get from New York to Moscow (about 14 from Los Angeles), and then an additional 5 on another plane to get to Irkutsk near Lake Baikal. The North American Great Lakes are considerably closer and offer a broadly similar experience. Kamchatka's volcanoes are awesome, but so are the ones in Alaska, and those can be visited at a much lower cost even by Europeans because of better-developed infrastructure and more competition among U.S. tour operators. The tsars' treasures in Moscow are phenomenal, but so are those of the Chinese emperors, and for many developed nations China offers faster transportation and easier access to visas. Without major investments in hospitality infrastructure, and much more spending on advertisements, Northern Eurasia will continue to lag far behind most of its worldwide competition. Russia spends only a few million dollars per year on promoting its tourism—considerably less than an average U.S. state.

The top attractions of Northern Eurasia are cultural. Most tourists come to see the Kremlin and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow; the State Hermitage Museum and the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg; the Kiev Caves Lavra in Kiev; the medieval Islamic complex in Samarkand, Uzbekistan; and so on. Some come to see natural wonders (e.g., Lake Baikal, Kamchatka Peninsula, the Caucasus, the Pamirs, and other wild places). Others come because of various unique experiences the region can offer: the longest railway ride in the world, a trip to the North Pole on a nuclear icebreaker, or the thrill of flying at 2.0 Mach in an Su-27 fighter jet. I begin by considering the main recreational areas developed during the Soviet period, and then consider major types of tourism and places that are being currently developed for both domestic and international tourists, as well as pertinent social and environmental issues related to tourism.

The Main Recreational Areas of the U.S.S.R.

Tourism is a form of leisure service. The earliest forms of tourism in the U.S.S.R., and in tsarist Russia before it, were visits to the warm sea and spas in a classic form of health tourism. Russia won its access to the Black Sea in a series of bloody wars (mainly with Turkey and the Crimean Tatars) over two centuries, starting in the 1600s and culminating at the time of the U.S. Civil War. The tiny Crimea Peninsula, with an area of 26,200 km?, was apparently a crown jewel worth shedding blood for. It has a unique, Italy-like climate with little frost in winter, a warm seacoast sheltered by mountains, and picturesque forests and steppe beyond the mountains. Swimming is possible for about 4 months each year. The Russian nobility built palaces in the Crimea from the early 19th century onward. In the early 20th century, Tsar Nicholas II, Prince Felix Yusupov, and other aristocrats had lavish palaces in Livadia, Foros, and Alupka in the Crimea, forming the so-called Russian Riviera. Asthma and TB sufferers, the writer Anton Chekhov being the most famous among them, would get respite from their diseases in the pine groves near Yalta. The Bolshevik government promoted healthier lifestyles for workers, and for this purpose redeveloped the imperial resorts lining the Black Sea coast and built new sanatoria there.

After Georgia and Armenia were incorporated into the Russian Empire (in 1800 and 1813, respectively), the Russian nobility gained access to additional warm sea beaches near Sukhumi and Batumi. In addition, the Russian Cossacks' push into the northern Caucasus in the 19th century opened up the mineral spa areas of Pyatigorsk (beautifully described in A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov) and the entire coastal stretch from Novorossiysk to Sochi. The Soviet elite continued to develop the Black Sea coast, with numerous sanatoria for the Communist elite and summer camps for youth. The Artek camp at Gurzuf, with the bear-shaped Ayu Dag Mountain as a stunning backdrop, was established shortly before World War II as the first international Communist camp. The old settlement of Eupatoria attracted ailing children to its healing muds and saline inland lakes with unique chemical properties. The Crimea had a resident population of just over 1 million, but this more than doubled in summer (Nikolaenko, 2003). Many visitors came on official sanatoria tickets, but many others came as independent tourists to rent a bed for a few nights from the locals or to camp out on the beach. The Crimea was so popular and crowded that a common joke “curse” for the locals became “May your relatives visit you in summer!”

Other areas with early tourism development in the Soviet period included resorts in Central Russia, skiing and water recreation in the lake country of the Valdai Hills, fishing and swimming along the Volga River, and hiking in the Caucasus and the Altay. The vast majority of tourists were citizens of the Soviet Union, primarily party bosses and privileged workers. Foreigners were allowed in, but only on prepackaged tours, and they were kept separate from the local population at all times. Independent travel by foreigners was not allowed. The early Soviet sanatoria were mainly focused on health; visiting spas, enjoying the forest air, sunbathing, and swimming were the main activities. Some resorts had or developed additional cultural resources—for example, along the famed “Golden Ring” of medieval Russian cities east of Moscow. Other favorites were various forms of active tourism: downhill and cross-country skiing, sailing, mountain trekking, and horseback riding, for example. Also always popular were summer camps for children; 2- to 4-week packages were available for free, largely through parents' places of employment, through schools, or by lottery to the most prestigious destinations like Artek.

At the same time, with the Iron Curtain in place, it was next to impossible for Soviet citizens to travel abroad. Some Communist apparatchiks could occasionally go to Bulgaria or Cuba, but even they required a special clearance from the KGB, which was not easy to obtain. It was almost impossible to visit North America, Western Europe, Asia, or the Pacific Islands as a tourist.

As noted above, the leading domestic tourist destination was the Crimea in Ukraine, with the Black Sea coast of Russia and Georgia trailing closely behind. Also popular were the Baltic capitals of Tallinn and Riga, and the small seaside towns of Yurmala and Palanga farther south. Limited Baltic Sea coast development also existed west and north of Leningrad and in Kaliningrad Oblast in Russia. Azerbaijan had Lenkoran, a resort on the Caspian Sea. The Central Asian republics had areas of mountain tourism (mainly horseback riding and mountaineering), especially near Lake Issyk-Kul, and health resorts in the warm Fergana Valley.

Tourism to and from Russia Today

By the end of the Soviet period, about 30 million people per year took advantage of resorts and sanatoria in the Russian Federation alone, not counting the other republics. Most were domestic tourists. The number of organized tourists in Russia abruptly plunged to a mere 8 million per year following the economic collapse of 1991, however. At the same time, the number of foreign tourists seeking to experience new and exciting opportunities in a previously unseen land rose substantially, but not nearly enough to compensate for the drop in the level of domestic tourism. Over 20 million foreigners visit Russia annually, as compared to 46 million visiting the United States, 52 million going to Spain, and 75 million going to France. The majority of foreign visitors come to Russia from Ukraine and Kazakhstan, and many of these are business or family visitors. The number of “true” foreign tourists visiting Russia per year from non-FSU countries is much lower (see below). If all visitors are included, Russia was the 10th most popular world destination in 2004—just ahead of tiny Austria, but behind Germany. Nikolaenko (2003) notes that such statistics are frequently misleading, however, because small countries with porous borders in Europe obviously see many more border crossings than, for example, large and isolated Canada or Russia.

As the economy stabilized after 2001, many Russian and other ex-Soviet citizens realized that they could now travel abroad. Visitors from the FSU became increasingly common in many European capitals, Alpine ski resorts, Mediterranean beaches, and some tropical countries. In 2008 36.5 million Russians crossed the nation's borders; 11 million of these crossings were for tourist trips, and 2 million business trips. The rest were either family visits or regular commutes between FSU republics, primarily crossings to– from Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Russia is in the top 10 nations in terms of both sending tourists abroad and tourists' spending. For example, in 2005 Russian tourists spent $15 billion on foreign trips—more than Belgian or Hong Kong residents, but quite a bit behind the top spenders, Germans ($71 billion) and Americans ($66 billion). The top destinations for Russian tourists going outside the FSU in 2008 were, in descending order, Turkey, China, Egypt, Finland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Germany, Thailand, and France, with Cyprus, Tunisia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) commonly in the top 10 in other years. Turkey was the top destination, with over 2.2 million visits (most to the “everything-included” resorts on the Mediterranean). Visits to China have been growing spectacularly—up 25% since 2007, with over 2 million visits, not counting business trips. The European destinations for Russian tourists are traditional ones, except Finland, which is attractive to the Russians because of its proximity, its high level of services, and the relative ease of securing a visa. Russians are also willing to travel to Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and other parts of the Middle East where many Westerners would not go, as long as the price is right. Few express concerns about safety. Visits to Israel more than doubled after the introduction of visa waivers there in 2008.

The numbers of tourists coming to Russia from non-FSU nations are drastically lower—only 2.3 million, and an additional 4 million business trips, out of a total of 23.6 million foreign visits in 2008. The rest are family trips by Russians who live abroad. So Russia sends five times as many tourists abroad as it receives. Among the non-FSU countries, the most tourists in 2008 came to Russia from Germany, the United States, Italy, Finland, the United Kingdom, China, Spain, France, Turkey, Canada, and Japan, in descending order. The top sender, Germany, sent merely 333,000 tourists; the United States sent 186,000. Such low numbers reflect a variety of factors: lack of hotel rooms, poor infrastructure, low promotional spending, perceived health and security risks, and difficulty in obtaining entry visas. The numbers for 2009 and 2010 are likely to be even lower because of the global recession.

The Main Forms of Tourism in Russia and Other FSU Countries

Classifying forms of tourism in the FSU is necessarily a subjective endeavor. I follow the classification used by the Russian Federal Tourism Agency, as well as by Kosolapov (2009). The following types of tourism are available for both foreign and domestic tourists: mass tourism in established resorts (at the seaside or near lakes, mineral springs, or mountains) or on cruises; cultural heritage tourism; religious pilgrimages; active and adventure tourism; nature tourism and ecotourism (plus hunting and fishing); and other tourism. Tourism accounts for only 0.5% of Russia's gross domestic products (GDP), as opposed to 1% in the United States and 6% or more in the European Union (EU). Kosolapov (2009) estimates that Russia's environmental potential for tourism is being utilized at a rate of only about 20%. Statistics on levels of domestic tourism are hard to find. The official statistics service only collects data on organized tourists, who account for fewer than half of all tourists countrywide. In established resort areas, perhaps 70% are organized tourists, but in the majority of the regions, only 30–40% are. Experts assess the total number of organized domestic tourists in Russia as smaller than the number of organized tourists traveling abroad. Only 10% of all registered travel agencies in Russia deal with domestic tourism; the rest are involved in the more lucrative outbound foreign tourism.

The capacity of Russian resorts is ridiculously low. The largest resort city in Russia, Sochi, has a total capacity of only 600,000 beds in peak season (although this is likely to change as preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics are made). If an average vacationer stays there for 1 month, the total visits to Sochi may be estimated at 3 million per year. This is part of the total for the entire Krasnodarsky region of about 5 million per year (including Anapa, Gelendzhik, and Tuapse). An additional 600,000 can be accommodated in the Kavkazsky Mineral Waters area in the Stavropol region. Because of many resorts' low capacity, their facilities are often overwhelmed, resulting in environmental problems of overcrowding; for example, poorly treated sewage frequently closes beaches both in the Crimea and near Sochi in peak season.

In Russia, over 60% of all vacations take place close to home on dachas (private summer cabins), and not as organized tourism in far places. With the deepening recession in 2009, even more people were expected to opt for the cheapest local options.

Mass Tourism at Established Resorts or on Cruises

The traditional packages sold by travel agents in the FSU involve visits to seaside sanatoria, spas, and other resorts, or cruises. These usually take place in the warmer parts of the region, and/or in places regarded as having curative properties of air, water, and scenery. Over half of all organized tourism activity in Russia belongs to this category, as well as a large majority of foreign tourist activity. The top destinations are Krasnodarsky Kray, the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Stavropolsky Kray, Chelyabinsk, Tatarstan, Kaliningrad Oblast, and the Altay. Also popular are cruises along the Oka and Volga. The Crimea in Ukraine continues to attract visitors and is the top destination in the FSU outside Russia. Each of these regions receives from about 500,000 to a few million tourists a year. Most visits are prepaid, all-inclusive vacations, but there are also considerable numbers of independent tourists. In seaside locations, tanning and swimming are the most popular activities. Inland, the main focus is on water sports in the rivers and lakes, as well as recreational fishing and limited hiking. About 70% of all tourists in Russia have relaxation as their main goal; an additional 6% are taking those trips primarily for health reasons.

A typical sanatorium from the late Soviet period is located on the Black Sea coast, belongs to a government ministry or a large private company, has about 200–300 beds available at any given time, and provides 2- to 3-week packages. The health regimen is taken very seriously. Upon check-in, each guest is evaluated for a range of physical conditions that may be amenable to treatment. Typical procedures include bathing in a sulfuric spa, drinking mineral water, walking outdoors, natural tanning, swimming, gymnastics, yoga, and other activities. Additional cultural events are provided. There are three meals a day. Today many of the old sanatoria are still functioning, although some had deteriorated to the point of no return by the 1990s and were permanently closed. New, smaller facilities are appearing every year in many old locations. Particularly booming at the moment seems to be the Black Sea coast south of Sochi (the future site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, as noted earlier). By contrast, the Crimea Peninsula is experiencing a downturn in activities as a result of fragmented ownership and lack of investment there (Nikolaenko, 2003).

Cultural Heritage Tourism

All FSU countries have multiple prehistoric sites. Some caves in the Altay and Georgia show evidence of human occupation going back to the late Pleistocene, over 100,000 years ago; some of these sites are among the earliest known anywhere outside of Africa to contain anatomically modern human bones and artifacts (e.g., Denisova Cave in the Altay). Archeologists in Ukraine and Russia have found entire villages with buildings constructed of thousands of mammoth bones. Neolithic and Bronze Age sites are common in the Central Asian states, located along the traditional Silk Route from the Middle East to China. The World Heritage Program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) lists numerous historical sites in the FSU of global importance. For comparison, some sites with the same recognition in the United States include the Statue of Liberty in New York, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and the native dwellings of Mesa Verde, Colorado. The listed sites in England include Stonehenge, Canterbury Cathedral, and the Tower of London.

Armenia has three medieval religious complexes dating back over 1,000 years on the World Heritage list. Azerbaijan has the walled city of Baku and the Gobustan rock art cultural landscape. Georgia has three sites, including Bagrati Cathedral, which is about 1,000 years old, in the center of Kutaisi. Estonia has the old part of Tallinn listed; this is a medieval fortified city built by the German Teutonic knights. Parts of the capitals of Latvia and Lithuania have likewise merited World Heritage designations. In Ukraine, there are the Kiev Caves Lavra and St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, as well as the historic center of Lvov. In Central Asia, 15th- and 16th-century Islamic complexes in Samarkand and Bukhara, Uzbekistan, and the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Turkestan, Kazakhstan, are recognized as examples of medieval Islamic culture along the Silk Route.

The European countries of the FSU also have a unique geographic artifact, the Struve Geodetic Arc, included in the World Heritage Program. This is a chain of survey triangulation points stretching from Norway to the Black Sea, through 10 countries and over 2,820 km. The survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by astronomer F. G. W. Struve, represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian on our planet. This helped to establish the exact size and shape of the earth's ellipsoid, and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. It is also a rare example of early scientific collaboration among different countries and cultures in Europe.

Russia has 14 historical sites on the World Heritage list, including the Moscow Kremlin, St. Petersburg's city center (its status is now being threatened by the Gazprom office tower development), the wooden churches of Kizhi, and a few stone-walled monasteries and old cities of Central Russia. Although no cultural sites are yet listed in Siberia, there are of course many such attractions there too—simply not on a par with the oldest ones in European Russia. In particular, historical Tobolsk and Tomsk may be worth a visit, and the remains of GULAG camps.

The majority of packaged historical tours of Russia include a few days in Moscow and St. Petersburg, with additional days spent in visiting the cities of the Golden Ring east of Moscow (Suzdal, Vladimir, Rostov, Yaroslavl) or the Valaam and Kizhi islands in Lakes Ladoga and Onega, respectively, east of St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is the most attractive destination in Russia, in the opinion of Russian travel agents (Kosolapov, 2009).

Another common option is to take a river cruise all the way from Moscow down the Volga, with stops at all major towns on the way. There are few other options as far as historical tours go, unless tourists speak Russian and are adventurous enough to strike out on their own, or so wealthy as to arrange for a personal tour guide with a driver and a car (as in the movie Everything Is Illuminated). In Ukraine, Kiev and Lvov attract a lot of historical tourism from abroad, with additional visitors coming to Chernigov, Poltava, Odessa, and a few other of the oldest cities. Some foreigners come with an explicit desire to visit the main battlefields of World War II—Volgograd (Stalingrad), Kursk, Smolensk, Minsk, Brest, and so on—or the Borodino battlefield of 1812, so eloquently described in Tolstoy's War and Peace. For Russians, two other famous battlefields are Lake Chudskoe (Peipus) on the border with Estonia, where the Teutonic knights were defeated by Prince Alexander Nevsky in 1242, and the Kulikovo battlefield in Tula Oblast, the site of a decisive victorious battle led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy against the Tatars in 1380. Seasonal reenactments of battles occur in a few places in Russia and are very popular.

Religious Pilgrimages

The Russian Orthodox Church and Islam have a long-standing tradition of pilgrimages to holy sites, just as the Roman Catholic Church does. “Pilgrimages” are defined as journeys to holy places to express devotion, to seek supernatural help, or to do penance. Among Christians, they became particularly popular in the Middle Ages as the cults of saints grew to become an important element of church life. Typical objects of pilgrimage include graves and churches with relics of saints; places where they lived and prayed (e.g., caves or monasteries); structures they built (cathedrals, churches); or places where they are believed to have appeared after their death. Pilgrimages are an established tradition in Russia. Since the fall of Communism, millions of people in the FSU have rediscovered it. Many pilgrimages are solo or small-group trips, but recently there have been also large public processions with relics or icons that go on for weeks and involve thousands of people. One of the largest takes place every summer in the Kirov region of northeastern European Russia and lasts for several days. Another pilgrimage to honor St. Seraphim of Sarov, the famous 19th-century monk and mystic, involves a few hundred participants walking from Kursk in southern Russia to Diveevo in Nizhniy Novgorod Oblast for 40 days, covering over 1,000 km.

Pilgrimages are important economic activities, because they generate revenue directly as donations to the communities that are visited, and indirectly by stimulating the development of services for pilgrims in otherwise poor locations. The town of Diveevo, for example, with its world-famous convent dedicated to the Holy Trinity, has a population of only 17,000 people (including over 800 nuns). On an average weekend in summer, over 3,000 pilgrims come to participate in church services, to venerate the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, to bathe in one of the holy springs, and so on. The majority of these people come on packaged tours organized by one of a few nationwide church service bureaus. Many of these are nonprofit ventures, using the proceeds from pilgrimages to support their own churches and communities in other parts of the country. Pilgrims to Diveevo stay in hotels or local people's homes. They also buy food, water, books, icons, candles, music, and other souvenirs. The impact of this economic activity on the small town is considerable. As an example, with local residents' monthly incomes from state pensions or salaries amounting to merely 5,000 or 6,000 rubles in Diveevo in 2006 (the average for Russia being 15,000), one group of pilgrims from Moscow staying overnight would pay 400–600 rubles to a local resident per night.

There is no definitive list of the top Orthodox pilgrimage sites in the FSU by numbers, but Diveevo and the monasteries listed in Chapter 14 are likely to be in the top 10. Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Armenia have many additional Christian sites. Over 20,000 Russians and Ukrainians participate in an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem during Orthodox Holy Week. Muslim holy sites are found in the Volga region of Russia (especially in Tatarstan), Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and the northern Caucasus (especially Dagestan). And Muslims from the ex-Soviet states are common participants in the hajj to
Mecca.

Active Tourism

The Russians are keen on active tourism. The most popular forms include hiking, mushroom and berry picking, game hunting, fishing, kayaking, downhill skiing and sledding, mountain climbing, horseback riding, and spelunking. Bicycling has always been popular in the Baltic republics and is gaining popularity elsewhere. There are some famous world explorers among the Russians—for example, Fedor Konyukhov (born in 1951), who has made over 40 record-breaking trips. He was the first person in Russian history to make a solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the globe; he has also climbed the top seven summits of the world (one on each continent) and made multiple trips across the Arctic and Antarctica on dogsled or on skis. With market reforms, new technologies and imported equipment have been introduced in most of Russia's heavily traveled areas. For example, the lower gorge of the Katun River in the Altay Republic of Russia now has over 50 companies offering whitewater rafting trips, using contemporary, well-built inflatable rafts. Similarly, snowmobiling, kayaking, tubing, scuba diving, windsurfing, and other outdoor endeavors have experienced phenomenal growth since 2000 in Russia.

Within Russia, the top outdoor destinations include Karelia (water tourism), the Caucasus and the Altay, the polar Urals, Lake Baikal, the Sikhote-Alin range, and (for the most adventurous) Kamchatka Peninsula. Other fine destinations include central European Russia, especially the glacial hills and lakes of Valdai National Park, the forests of Komi, the beaches of the Baltic coast, and the forests and rivers of the southern Urals (Bashkortostan and Chelyabinsk regions). In contrast, there are very few opportunities for active tourism for people living in the Russian steppe zone and western Siberia, where the land is flat and boggy, settlements are rare, and roads are poor or nonexistent. Even in these less optimal places, however, people go on outings to a local forest or a warm lake in summer, or go skiing across the frozen fields in winter. In fact, the so-called village tourism is enjoying high popularity everywhere in the region now because of its low cost, much as in the rest of Europe (Ostergren & Rice, 2004).

The official statistics on domestic active tourism in Russia are hard to come by. Nevertheless, Figure 16.3 provides an indirect way of assessing the popularity of various destinations, based on the trip reports filed online at the popular open-access Website turizm.lib.ru. Such reports are commonly used by others to gauge the suitability of a particular destination for their purposes. The most commonly reported destination is Karelia, which is close to St. Petersburg and Moscow; it provides unmatched opportunities for canoe and kayaking expeditions in the largely flat, lakeand river-dominated terrain. Karelia has postglacial scoured relief similar to that of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, and attracts tens of thousands of tourists per year. The presence of national parks and preserves helps tourists to choose optimal routes, and the availability of a main railroad line provides easy access to many entry points. The second most commonly reported destination is the Moscow region. The actual total numbers of tourists here are likely to be higher than in Karelia, but most people probably spend much less time per trip. In Karelia, most trips are at least 7 days in duration; in the more accessible area near Moscow, weekend trips are common. The Moscow region has a few new skiing resorts that are attracting a wealthy clientele. It also offers diverse summer forms of recreation, such as mushroom hunting and berry picking. The third most commonly reported destination for adventure trips is the Altay Mountains. The Altay receives over 500,000 tourist visits per year, but only 10% of them are primarily «outdoor» oriented, including backpacking, horseback trips, and whitewater rafting. Most travelers to this area stay in established health resorts.

Currently in fourth place, the Russian Caucasus used to be the second most popular Soviet destination for mountain tourists, especially skiers, but its popularity has waned considerably because of the political instability there since 1991. Nevertheless, the skiing areas of Dombai and Baksan, and opportunities to climb Mt. Elbrus and other peaks taller than the Alps, continue to attract domestic and foreign visitors. New investments are also pouring in from the federal and regional governments. Two major international airports, Sochi/Adler and Mineralnye Vody, now provide access to the south and north slopes, respectively. The total number of developed ski resorts in the FSU in early 2009 was only 70; tiny Latvia had 27, Russia had 17, and Ukraine had 14. In comparison, Germany had 116, and Austria 275. In Russia, the busiest one is Baksan near Mt. Elbrus in Kabardino-Balkariya, with 11 lifts and 35 km of trails. Besides the Caucasus, big ski resorts exist in the Altay (Belokurikha), near Lake Baikal, and on Kola Peninsula (Kirovsk), as well as a few brand new ones near Moscow (Mtsensk, Volen, Sorochany). The latter ones use the newest snow-making machines and a combination of natural and artificial hills in the generally flat area.

Adventure Tourism

Adventure tourism is probably the fastest-growing form of tourism in the FSU. Many are extreme forms that attract thrill seekers, both domestic and foreign, to undertake risky activities outside the bounds of conventional behavior. Sometimes also called “shock tourism,” it has evolved primarily among modern, upper-middleincome consumers who do not experience enough thrills in their mundane lives in big cities. The following opportunities may be mentioned:

  • Taking rides in military fighter jets at supersonic speeds.
  • Space and near-space tourism (e.g., being trained as if you were going to go to space, using Russian Star City centrifuge equipment, zero-gravity flights, etc.).
  • Diving in lakes and rivers during winter.
  • Extreme mountain biking down a steep slope with no trail.
  • Paragliding.
  • Exploring sewers and old bomb shelters in Moscow with so-called diggers.
  • Bungee jumping into waterfalls or off cliffs.
  • Walking a stretch of a former Siberian prison road with your feet in fetters.
  • Wild caving in Central Russia, the Urals, or Siberia.
  •  Visiting abandoned mines or factories of the Soviet period.

There are now “extreme amusement parks” in the Altay and a few places in Central Russia, where one can spend a few days engaging in a variety of strenuous, sometimes life-threatening activities. Considering that many of these places also serve alcohol on the premises, accidents are common, including some fatalities.

Nature Tourism and Ecotourism

Broadly speaking, nature tourism involves the outdoors just as active and adventure tourism do, but the focus is on nature rather than on bodily exercise. True nature tourists use natural areas to observe, to heal, to learn, and to think. Ecotourism is similar to nature tourism, but it is not simply nature based; it must also be sustainable with respect to both nature and the local culture (Kolbovsky, 2008). Although western-style eco-tours are just beginning to be developed in Russia, traditional Russian outdoor activities such as mushroom picking (mentioned above) may qualify as ecotourism when practiced sustainably.

Compared to Western Europe or North America, very few companies specialize in offering nature tours in Russia or the rest of the FSU. Moreover, most such companies cater to a very selective Western clientele, not to domestic tourists. Most Russian nature enthusiasts organize and outfit themselves. Since very few people in the U.S.S.R. owned a car, nature trips by necessity took place relatively close to home, in local natural areas that could be accessed via suburban train. Such stations in the Moscow region, for example, included Peredelkino, Bulatnikovo, Turist, and Opalikha, half an hour away from the city. More ambitious and better-prepared tourists would spend entire vacations hiking, backpacking, canoeing, or mountaineering in the remote corners of the Soviet Union, accessed via long-distance trains and plenty of walking with heavy backpacks.

There is much debate over how much nature tourism in Russia today qualifies as ecotourism. Although definitions of the latter vary, most would include two important provisions, as indicated above: the naturalness of the experience, and respect for/benefits to the local culture. For example, flying top executives around Sakhalin in a military helicopter shows them the beauty of the island's wild nature, perhaps, but the main mode of transportation is not natural; nor does it generate any revenue for the residents of the island. On the other hand, a kayaking trip down the famed Chuya River in the Altay Republic may very well be done in a natural way by using minimal-impact camping techniques, and it will benefit local communities if the party agrees to buy local food and supplies.

Few Russian travel agents have caught on to the importance of ecotourism, although some are learning quickly. Most assume that vacationing Russians are desperate only for the “three S's”: sun, sea, and sand somewhere in the Mediterranean. In fact, you are more likely to find an ecotour guide from Russia advertising in English to Western clients than in Russian to local ones. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of Russians do spend time on formal outdoor trips, many of which would qualify as ecotours. Protected natural areas, especially national and regional nature parks, provide interpretive trails and camps. Sometimes they are also the scenes of more questionable activities (e.g., private hunting trips for well-connected bureaucrats or wealthy foreign clients; this is a particularly common practice in Central Asia and the Caucasus).

Student groups from universities and schools organize longer nature expeditions, usually led by a dedicated teacher. Summer camps are held in different regions for underperforming or rural schoolchildren; these offer excellent environmental programs with elements of ecotourism in the curriculum. Foreign clients demand more extensive ecotours; they cherish the wilderness experience that Northern Eurasia can still offer. Russia's zapovedniks and national parks provide diverse opportunities for ecotourism. Additional possibilities exist in regional nature parks, in local natural monuments, in historical parks, and simply in undesignated wilderness. Only five countries worldwide have an amount of wilderness comparable to Russia's, and only Canada has a similar range of experiences. The other three are tropical Brazil, Australia, and China. In Brazil, tropical rain forests provide a radically different experience from Russia's taiga; in Australia, the main wilderness experience is that of a tropical desert; China has mainly arid mountains and subtropical forests. Although Canada may seem like an exact counterpart of Russia, in reality it is very different sociopolitically. For example, the provincial governments of Canada maintain a much tighter control over land use policies than local Russian jurisdictions do. Consequently, there are much stricter policies on back-country travel in Canadian provincial parks than in Russia, where pretty much “anything goes.” Also, more land may be controlled by private logging companies in Canada, with restrictions placed on public access, than in Russia.

Besides Russia, outstanding opportunities for ecotourism exist in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan, with their giant mountain ranges, wild steppes, and beautiful rivers and lakes. In the latter two, however, the political instability of the last 20 years has hampered tourism development. Kazakhstan is well positioned to create world-class ecotourism programs. It makes conscious efforts to attract tourists from China, with which it shares a long land border and a railroad link. Nevertheless, Kazakhstan lags behind Russia in the availability of outdoor tourist services. Ukraine also has good potential for rural tourism, with elements of ecotourism in the Crimea and the Carpathians. The Baltic states have well-run programs involving stays on farms, as well as excellent (albeit small) national parks. In Georgia and Armenia, opportunities for sustainable mountain tourism are likewise plentiful, but little known to outsiders due to political unrest and a lack of development.

Other forms of nature tourism are either being developed or likely to be developed in the FSU in the near future. One of these, scientific tourism, involves trips undertaken by researchers with a scientific goal in mind. For much of Soviet history, access to the Eurasian hinterland has been greatly restricted. Geophysicists studying the earth's magnetic fields, geologists interested in unique minerals, glaciologists pursuing remote glaciers and permafrost, hydrologists interested in the water balance of the Arctic Ocean, biologists looking for rare plants and animals, anthropologists and linguists studying endangered cultures, and archeologists searching for artifacts are some examples of specialists who visit Northern Eurasia on research grants these days. These trips are funded by Western taxpayers, are frequently conducted on tourist visas, and bring revenue to the FSU countries. Specialized bird-watching or whale-watching trips, archeological digs, and other types of nature tourism would fit into this category, as long as they are done by scientists with the purpose of obtaining new data.

Other Forms of Tourism

A growing segment of tourism is medical tourism, which involves long-distance travel to diagnose or treat a condition or disease. It is becoming better known, particularly with respect to dental services, Lasik eye surgery, cosmetic surgery, and cancer/heart disease diagnosis and treatment. Many such “tourists” are visitors to Russia from the poorer FSU republics, but some are also wealthy Westerners (especially former Russian residents who now live abroad) who are seeking cheaper treatments than those available where they currently live.

Organized shopping tours are less common in the FSU than in the United States or Europe, but they do occur. Moscow and St. Petersburg attract the lion's share of domestic and international shoppers, accounting for about 21% of the total retail activity in the country. “Alcohol tours” to St. Petersburg attract busloads of tourists from Finland, a country where liquor is prohibitively expensive. Residents of cities within a day's journey of Moscow often come for weekend cultural tours that also include shopping. Shopping for electronics in border centers in nearby China is common for Kazakh tourists. Russians in the Far East visit South Korea or Japan to purchase cars or electronics.

Greatly underdeveloped is theme park tourism. There are still no equivalents of Disneyland or Sea World in the FSU. A few aquaparks and wildlife safari parks have been proposed for the Moscow and Leningrad areas or have been already built. The coastal areas have aquariums highlighting marine life. Veliky Ustyug in Vologda Oblast is the supposed home of Ded Moroz, the Russian Santa Claus, with associated heavily commercialized tourist attractions. The old Soviet amusement parks (e.g., Gorky Park in Moscow) are undergoing slow renovation.

Unfortunately, there is also sex tourism in many parts of the FSU. Many foreigners come to Russia and other Eastern European countries with the explicit purpose of procuring sex for money. Although such business is strictly illegal, economic realities and poor law enforcement make such sex relatively easy to obtain in much of the FSU, including the Baltic states. Strip clubs, escort services, massages, and dubious matchmaking agencies are common and operate with little hindrance in many cities. Western businessmen also procure sex workers for foreign markets in the FSU. Especially grave concerns exist about violations of women's rights and welfare in Moldova and Ukraine—both poor countries close to Europe that provide a large share of prostitutes to the European, Middle Eastern, and North American underground markets (Hughes, 2005). There are also concerns about pedophiles preying on children in the region—especially those in the poorest areas, but also wealthier urban kids online.

Some visitors come to the FSU for legitimate adoption of a child or for marriage, as a form of social or family tourism. Such prospective parents/ bridegrooms are not tourists in the narrow sense, but they contribute to the rising fortunes of matchmaking companies (some of the same ones that also facilitate the “mail-order bride” business) and can be seen as a type of economic tourists as well.

To summarize, Northern Eurasia provides multiple opportunities for all kinds of tourism. However, major investment in infrastructure, advertisement, and planning is urgently needed to boost both domestic and international tourist numbers. The fastest-growing forms of tourism are nature and adventure tourism. Nature, however, is fragile, and much more must be done to make outdoor tourism sustainable over the long term. Also, Russia in particular is one of the world's top 10 suppliers of tourists to foreign destinations, and the numbers of Russian (and other ex-Soviet) tourists in Europe, Asia, and North America are expected to continue growing.

Review Questions

  1. Think of the top 5–10 destinations for conventional tourism in your country (check online resources or a library to determine the exact numbers of visitors). Which of these are primarily cultural sites? Which ones are natural sites? How many are wild areas as opposed to heavily developed areas? For every site on your list, try to come up with a similar site somewhere in Northern Eurasia.
  2. Which countries are the main magnets for Russian tourists today? Why?
  3. Name any five common outdoor activities that Russians enjoy. Are any of these available to you in the region where you live?
  4. Who would travel more internationally—citizens of a small or a large country? Explain and back up with examples from the text and your own research.
  5. Where do you think Russian students go on their winter break? (There usually isn't a spring break, because colleges operate on a two-semester system with no breaks at midsemester in Russia, but there is usually a long period of 4 weeks in January between the fall and spring semesters.)
  6. Why do you think Moldova and Ukraine in particular have been dubbed the “mail-order bride capitals” of Europe? What are the geographic factors behind this phenomenon?

Exercises

  1. The following countries were the most popular foreign destinations for Russian tourists in January and July 2006, as reported by the www.tur-online.ru travel agency. Try to explain the choice of these specific countries, using your sense of the world's regional geography. The numbers in parentheses are percentages of tourists out of the total:
    January 2006 July 2006
    Egypt (39%) Turkey (44%)
    Thailand (11%) Egypt (9%)
    UAE (8%) Spain (6%)
    Turkey (4%) Greece (6%)
    Czech Republic (3%) Bulgaria (4%)
    India (3%) Croatia (4%)
    Spain (2%) Tunisia (3%)
    Maldives (1%) Cyprus (3%)
  2. Try finding information on the top destinations for your country in the same 2 months (or at least in a recent year). What were these top destinations? How do those compare to the destinations visited by the Russians? Are some countries the same? Are there any countries on both lists that are very similar in terms of geography, but located in different hemispheres?
  3. Investigate your options to purchase a basic tour of the Golden Ring (Zolotoe Koltso) of Russia. How many companies can you find that offer those? How many seem to be tour operators (as opposed to merely agents, who will sell you the package, but not operate the tour themselves)? What are the price ranges? How do those compare in both prices and amenities to a comparable tour in France? In an Eastern or Central European country? Which one seems like a better deal to you? Why do you think this is the case?
  4. Stage a debate in your classroom on the pros and cons of developing (a) more conventional sanatoria, (b) more outdoor horse routes, (c) more highway-dependent motorized tourism, and (d) casinos in the Altay. Break into four teams, and let each one come up with positives for itself. Other teams should think ahead and come up with possible negatives for the others. Have fun trying to convince your instructor (or an investment board selected from among your classmates) to make the right choice.