Impact of Cross-Border Tourism on the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas in the Russian–Polish and Russian–Kazakh Borderlands

Anna A Mikhaylova,Andrey S Mikhaylov,Jan A Wendt,Agnieszka Bógdał-Brzezińska,Dmitry V Hvaley

doi:10.3390/su14042409

Abstract

Rural areas and peripheral borderland territories are experiencing socio-economic marginalization featuring depopulation, population aging, and an increasing inequality gap in the quality of life compared to cities. Integrated rural tourism is argued to be ideal for supporting the well-being of rural communities, providing an additional income, decreasing unemployment, offering new and appealing jobs out of traditional rural activities, while preserving the conventional lifestyle. In this study, we discovered the tourism capacity of rural borderland territories affected by cross-border tourism using the data on the geography of cross-border movements, the distribution of tourist sights, and the density of tourist accommodation facilities. The geographical scope of the study covered two cross-border coastal regions—the Russian–Polish region on the Baltic Sea and the Russian–Kazakh region on the Caspian Sea. The statistical and geoinformation analysis were used to allocate areas of prospecting rural tourism integrated with cross-border movement. The research results on the development and distribution of tourist infrastructure suggest that: the rural territories of these regions feature tourist attractions and accommodation facilities at a different level of density and remoteness from the border crossing; each cross-border region is featuring different types of travel restrictions for tourists; and both border-land territories show asymmetry by the more active Russian tourists traveling abroad. Each of the regions under consideration is attractive for cross-border tourism while having different degrees of penetration of tourist flows into the interior territories and coverage of rural areas. The study resulted in a tourist flow model that allows integrating rural areas.

Highlights

The motives of cross-border movement are endemic for each borderland, crossborder tourism can positively influence the sustainable development of rural areas
We studied the experience of developing cross-border tourism in the post-Soviet space on the borders of Russia–Poland and Russia–Kazakhstan, focusing on the involvement of rural areas in this process
The borderland territories have similar challenges of rural development, while featuring local specifics that affect the tourist flows in the rural borderland: the traditional way of life and the way of using rural space, including the prevailing settlement structure of the rural population, the geography of cross-border movement, and the location of agricultural objects

Summary

Introduction

Rural territories are in need of sustainable development throughout the globe. Reports continuously express concerns on the negative demographic trends in rural areas, including depopulation and population aging [1,2]. The socio-economic inequality of the urban–rural divide, and a declining appeal of traditional rural activities for younger generations (e.g., dairy and beef cattle breeding, crop farming, horticulture, fishing and fish farming, beekeeping, etc.) cause an outflow of young people to cities [3]. A limited economic diversification places local communities under a strong dependence on such external factors of influence as weather 4.0/).

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