Turistskie svyazi Sovetskogo Soyuza s afrikanskimi gosudarstvami: stanovlenie, uspekhi i provaly

Abstract

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of Soviet-African tourist ties and, above all, the issues of their formation and complex dynamics of development. It is based on materials from five federal and regional archives containing information about geography, volumes, pricing policy, features of tour programs and the perception of African reality by Soviet tourists. A number of factors influenced the dynamics of tourist relations with African countries: the global confrontation between the two systems; the military-political situation in the countries of the region, which determines the safety of tourists; the trade and economic activity of the USSR; military-technical cooperation. However, all these factors were derived from the state’s attraction to one or another “camp”. The documents demonstrate a rather contradictory dynamic and content of international tourist exchange. If inbound tourism differed by separate programs for socialist and capitalist countries and preferences for friendly countries, outbound tourism was less dependent on the “orientation” of the country. It was characterized by: a minimal “commercial” effect, the cognitive nature of the tour with an obligatory ideological component and the absence (with rare exceptions) of specialized groups.