Perspectives for Sustainable Tourism Development: A Case of Russia’s Far East Region

Abstract

The Russian government recently began to see sustainable tourism development as one of the possible scenarios for improving the socio-economic situation in rural and remote areas. However, currently, Russia is at the initial stages of tourism development, including the first timid steps in the legislative consolidation of sustainable tourism and ecotourism concepts. Therefore, this research aims to examine the current situation of ecotourism development in remote regions of Russia with an accent on governmental programs. The results showed that despite Russia’s tourism policy documents declaring sustainable tourism development in rural and remote regions, this industry is poorly developed. The governmental programs lack the understanding of how to achieve this goal. Ecotourism is at the very initial level of development. It is sporadic and is promoted mainly by specially protected natural areas managers and activists of non-profit organizations. Furthermore, sustainable tourism development in Russia lacks the theoretical basis, research, and expert discussion of the problems.