The potential of a short tourist route on the example of a single street: tourist attractiveness of urban spaces

Abstract

The subject of this research is tourist attractiveness of the walking rout of a section of a single street in Samara. The object of this research is such characteristics of the route as visual attractiveness, convenience and safety, atmosphere, and uniqueness. This article provides the analysis of urban space and environment on the example of a specific street in the city of Samara. The selected section directly connects the railway station, which is the place of daily arrival and transit tourists, and the Volga promenade – as one of the main symbols of the city and the center of attraction for locals and visitors. The goal of this research consists in the analysis of the existing conditions for the tourist route, which can be improved and extended for increasing the overall assessment of tourism infrastructure. The empirical framework of this research synthesizes the approaches towards interpretation of the psychogeography of the city and towards the analytics of individual experience in the urban environment. The field notes and information analysis allow examining the potential of a tourist route in this section, as well as making recommendations for increasing tourist attractiveness and development of tourism infrastructure of the city. Such pattern can be applied in the research of large and small cities for assessing the current situation and efficient planning of tourism infrastructure in the future. The author formulates the categories of tourist attractiveness that reflect physical, psychological and emotional characteristics of feasibility of urban environment for local tourism. The scientific novelty of this work consists in the development of categories for the analysis based on the key approaches of Paul Kidwell and Colin Ellard towards studying psychogeography of the city and architecture of the urban environment.