Innovative Development of Tourism in the Steppe Regions of Russia

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to assess the innovative development of the tourism sector in the steppe regions of Russia, taking into account modern challenges. Methods. The information base was statistical data of the Federal State Statistics Service, the Federal Agency for Tourism, the Ministry of Economic Development, materials of scientific electronic libraries (eLIBRARY. RU, DisserCat). On the basis of the author's methodology, for a comprehensive assessment of the innovative development of the tourist sphere of the steppe regions of Russia, optimized indicators were selected to reflect the innovative development of the studied territories (the number of tour operators - developers of a new tourist product; the number of events aimed at the presentation of tourist resources; the number of special economic zones of the tourist and recreational type and the number of tourism clusters; the number of scientific publications on tourism, etc.). As a result of the analysis, unification and summation of the indicated indicators, a schematic map was drawn up, clearly reflecting the innovative development of the tourism sector of the steppe regions of Russia. Comparative geographical, statistical and geoinformation research methods allowed to comprehensively evaluate the innovative development of the tourism sphere of the steppe regions. Results and discussion. In general, the innovative development of tourism in the steppe regions of Russia can be assessed as uniform, the difference in values between most regions is small. Nevertheless, the leading regions (Crimea, Sevastopol, Belgorod region) and outsiders (Volgograd, Saratov regions, a number of republics of the North Caucasus) are clearly distinguished. Conclusions. To develop the tourism sphere and introduce innovations, first of all, it is necessary to create new special economic tourist-recreational clusters and zones, the number of which is insignificant in steppe regions; to create a system of scientific and personnel support of the tourism sphere in the region; to improve the taxation system for organizations involved in innovations in the tourism sphere.