Динамика и география потока российских туристов в Финляндии и Эстонии в 2004–2018 гг.

Abstract

At a time when international tourism in Russia has been decreasing since 2014, Finland and Estonia preserve the leadership among EU countries on number of trips there made by Russians. Neighbouring location of Russia assigning some geographical peculiarities to Russian tourist flow to the territories of these countries. The aim of the research is to identify both geographic peculiarities, as well as specific features of the distribution of tourist flow from Russia to the territory of Finland and Estonia. A cartographic analysis allowed to define the connection of the value of the Russian tourist flow at the territory of these countries with: 1) remoteness of the region from the border with Russia, as well as from St. Petersburg, which is the main supplier of Russian tourists to those countries; 2) the density of population in border zones, especially from the Russian side: 3) location and volume of annual traffic of multi-sided vehicle checkpoints at the border. Besides, an active transboundary tourist exchange at the part of Russian-Estonian border in Ivangorod (Kingisepp area of Leningrad region) and Narva (Ida-Virumaa county) is supported by ethnic population relationship on both sides of the border and the possibility to cross the border on foot along the bridge across the River Narva.