Natural Tourism Potential of the Permsky Krai

Abstract

Rationale: The natural conditions of territory determine the opportunities and prospects for tourism development. The Permsky Krai is one of the regions of Russia, charactering by a variety of natural resources and conditions. A spatial variety of natural tourism potential determines relevance of researches in context of administrative units with definition of distinctions between territories. Purpose: The purpose of the research is the assessment and geographical analysis of natural opportunities of the Permsky Krai for tourism development. Methodology: Methods based on application of mathematical and statistical techniques of information processing. Its basis is a rating assessment and typology of the Permsky Krai districts according to resource tourism potential using factor and cluster analysis. Results: The rating assessment of the Permsky Krai districts gave identify territories with different resource capabilities for tourism development. It defines location of each district and its percentage in the total potential of region. The analysis is based on typology of the Krai districts, which allows combining districts into groups (types) with similar opportunities for tourism development. Conclusions: As a result of the research, all districts of the Permsky Krai were ranked in terms of natural tourism potential and 4 types of districts of the region with different levels were identified. The highest indicators were characteristic of the northern and northeastern districts. Some central, western and southern areas of the region have a significant tourism potential.