Russian Visitors Research Articles

Russian 'relocants' share their experiences: A study of perceptions of Kyrgyzstan as a destination

This study examines the perceptions of Russian citizens who have relocated to Kyrgyzstan due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. These individuals, who refer to themselves as “relocants”, have created and shared videos on YouTube documenting their experiences in the new country. Using thematic analysis of these videos, the study aims to understand how Kyrgyzstan is perceived as a destination and provide recommendations for decision-making in tourism and destination development. The study reveals that Kyrgyzstan has a negative or non-existent image among Russian visitors who lack prior experience in the country; however, a positive image is developed after their arrival, indicating contradictions between pre- and post-arrival images. The article concludes with practical recommendations, such as highlighting positive aspects of Kyrgyzstan in promotional materials and addressing issues with transportation infrastructure and air quality.

THE ROLE OF TOURISM AS THE FACTOR ENSURING ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

The tourist arrivals were growing from 2012 to 2019, and 1.8 million people visited Armenia in 2019. That number was not surpassed in subsequent years, and the expenditures by international inbound visitors amounted to about 2.44 billion US dollars in 2022 (accounting for 12.5% of GDP). The article attempts to identify the role of expenditures by international inbound visitors in Armenia in explaining the statistically significant changes in the real gross domestic product (GDP), and the role of tourist arrivals and exchange rate in explaining statistically significant changes in tourism receipts in the short run utilizing the least squares estimation techniques and using quarterly data (2012q1-2023q2); and how vulnerable the Armenian economy is to external shocks to propose respective recommendations on priorities to address the challenges faced under various scenarios we built. We find evidence of the «multiplier effect» with respect to tourism receipts and conclude that the Armenian economy is vulnerable to changes in tourist arrivals (especially visitors from Russia). The slight reduction in tourist arrivals from Russia or if their number remains unchanged could be accompanied by a decrease in expenditures by Russian visitors in Armenia in the period 2024-2026. We conclude that the overvalued Armenian dram against the US dollar in the short run and medium term would negatively affect the price competitiveness of Armenia as an attractive travel destination for foreign visitors unless Armenia succeeds in offering specific tourism products by taking into account the price-perceived quality ratio to attract foreigners. We emphasize the importance of the availability of 2-star hotels or affordable accommodation in the medium term to prevent a drop in tourist arrivals if the Armenian dram remains overvalued.

A Story with Characters and Action

A Story with Characters and Action

Love’s Labour’s Lost, or A Russian Priest, Esperantist and Utopist in the Early 20 c. Japan

ABSTRACT Japan has always occupied a special place in the Russian mindscape. From the beginning of the first contacts and for the subsequent century and a half, the invariable pattern of reaction to Japan was the oscillation between rapturous expectations and a cold shower of encounters. This article offers an analysis of this paradigm of perception and a deconstruction of certain cultural and psychological traits of Russian visitors to Japan or residents of that country. Under scrutiny are their attitudes when confronted with the radical notion of otherness. Special emphasis is put on what impeded and what facilitated the intercultural dialogue. The article includes a case study which focuses on the voluminous memoirs (based on diaries) of the priest Innokentij Seryšev, who spent two and a half years in Japan in the late Taishō era (1920–1922). The main conclusion is that the invariant pattern of swinging perception of Japan from rhapsodic to threnodic, was influenced by objective causes. One of the principal reasons for this is the underestimation of the level of psychological and cultural differences between the Russians and the Japanese. Many cultural traits that looked agreeable were perceived by Seryšev without due context and a proper understanding of the foreign national and cultural matrix and without realizing his own limits in interpretation. These peculiarities of perception were (and sometimes still are) quite similar for many generations of Russian visitors/residents to/of Japan.

The Monster in the Corner of the Map: Russian Visitors Describe Nature on Sakhalin Island (1850–1905)

Abstract This article examines evolving constructions of nature on Sakhalin Island in late imperial Russia, emphasising changing Russian views of not only the island, but of science, modernisation, mankind's power over nature and the borders of the empire. From a European land of plenty in the 1850s, welcoming to its Russian visitors, after a quarter-century of penal colonisation, the island had become a monster devouring its prey. This article argues that contradictory and evolving descriptions of Sakhalin's nature reflect tensions Russians faced in a modernising world, as they questioned the relationship between mankind and nature; the reliability of science; and the correct borders of their state. In the 1850s, Sakhalin seemed normal and bountiful, a gift to Russia, while two decades later, it was wealthy but hostile, although, with science, Russians could prevail. By the 1890s, that was called into question, and the island was portrayed as not only hostile, but foreign, desolate and unsubmissive to science; while activists of the early twentieth century reimagined it as abundant, comprehensible and vital to the empire. The image of Sakhalin as hostile and unintelligible prevailed, reflecting a widespread disillusionment with Western modernity. In 1905, Russia surrendered the southern half of the island to Japan.

Cross‐border tourism: Case study of inbound Russian visitor arrivals to China

AbstractCross‐border tourism between Russia and China has increased over the past two decades, but few studies examine this development. This study uses the gravity model to investigate whether the tourism‐related, political, transport infrastructure‐related, and socio‐economic factors influence Russian visitors to China. The findings show that Russian visitors across the border to visit China are attributed to the Chinese prefectural‐level cities' real gross domestic product and export volumes, as well as transport infrastructure to connect Russian visitors to Chinese destinations. A clear knowledge of these factors allow both governments to formulate policies in facilitating visitor flows and more business activities across the border.

Elicitation of tourist accommodation demand for counter-seasonal responses: Evidence from the Slovenian Coast

Abstract This paper aims to survey the seasonality of Slovenian Coast from two different perspectives: (i) major source markets (domestic, main foreign markets); and (ii) accommodation categories (hotels, campsites, other). It applies a decomposition of the Gini index method. The results reveal the total Slovene coastal tourism concentration is relatively high compared to other Mediterranean coastal destinations. However, domestic tourists and tourists from neighbouring markets of Italy and Austria reveal a less seasonal pattern both overall and across all accommodation categories. Thus, increased efforts to attract more domestic, Italian and Austrian tourists would reduce the seasonality. Further, German and Russian visitors demonstrated higher seasonality. Market-specific products to attract tourists out of the peak season therefore need to be developed, based on an in-depth analysis of their seasonal behaviour and travel motivation.

'Water Law' as an Instrument of Russian Imperial Policy in the Central Asian Khanates

Water has always been an important resource for Central Asian states and peoples. Different rulers at different times used water, and access to it, as an instrument of political and even military influence. When the Russian Empire expanded into Central Asia, seizing substantial parts of three central Asian khanates (Bukhara, Khiva and Khoqand) and established its own protectorate over these states, its also found that water was one of the most effective means to control the rulers and peoples of Central Asia. The use of water and irrigation policy as an instrument of rule was effectively used by the Russian Empire in its relations with the Central Asian khanates and this has already been the subject of investigation. This paper analyses the legal regulation of water use and the irrigation policy of the Russian Empire in Turkestan in order to influence the Bukharan Emirate and the Khivan Khanate during the epoch of the Russian protectorate (1870s–1910s). The paper demonstrates how the internal “water law” was a starting point in Russian policy towards Bukhara and Khiva, and shows that each subsequent stage was closely connected to the evolution of the “water law” in the Russian Turkestan. The sources are official documents (including legal acts) of the Russian Empire, correspondence of Russian and Central Asian statesmen, memoirs of contemporaries and the notes of Russian visitors to khanates (diplomats, engineers, etc.) who participated in the realization of Russian water policy in Bukhara and Khiva and could estimate its effectiveness.

From shuttle traders to middle-class consumers: Russian tourists in Finnish newspaper discourse between the years 1990 and 2014

ABSTRACTThe “eastern tourist,” as a reference category to the visitors from Russia, has been a recurring feature in Finnish newspapers. Focusing on the leading Finnish national daily newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, this article explores how representations of Russian tourists as consumers have been changing in the Finnish mass media since the beginning of the 1990s until 2014. The article considers tourists as a discursive category, thereby introducing a discourse analysis approach to tourism studies. Three periods are differentiated: firstly, during the 1990s (when visitors from Russia were represented as “shuttle traders” bringing problems and disturbing social order in Finland); secondly, from the end of the 1990s until 2014 (when the newspaper discourse emphasized the economic gains from the Russian tourists and investigates peculiarities and ambiguities of their taste. At the time, Russian visitors were represented as middle-class tourists); thirdly, around the year 2014 (when the Russians were portrayed as the middle class with declining purchasing power and limited ability to travel, which brought loses in Finland). The analysis allowed us to observe how images of Russian tourists changed in the context of the evolving consumer culture in Russia and the neoliberal shift in the Finnish mass-media discourse.

Reflections on the Asian Hotel Attributes: The Russian Gaze

ABSTRACTThe current paper focuses on a lucrative, but a relatively unknown Russian market. Content analysis of online reviews from three review websites is conducted and the important hotel attributes for Russian visitors to Hong Kong are identified. The results demonstrate that Russian guests, as with other markets, place importance on scenic views, accessibility, breakfasts, swimming pools and friendly and attentive staff. Several issues that emerged in the current study merit further attention. Owing to high fluctuation of national currency exchange rates the mode and timing of payment is an important consideration. Experience of a room booking via an online travel agency may impact on the hotel experience. Hotel brand, Russian-speaking staff and Russian language information did not appear important.

Impact of rouble’s depreciation on Russian overnight stays in Finnish regions and cities

This article investigates how the depreciation of the Russian rouble against the euro has affected Russian tourism demand in Finnish regions and cities. Using dynamic panel data models, the authors find that the elasticity of Russian tourists’ overnight hotel stays with respect to exchange rates is significantly larger than 1 (approximately 1.6) in absolute terms, indicating that Russian tourists are highly sensitive to changes in exchange rates. There is some evidence that the sensitivity of Russian tourism demand increased following the introduction of economic sanctions in August 2014. The sensitivity of tourism demand to exchange rate changes differs highly across regions and cities, with higher elasticities in border regions and cities not too far from the Russian border. These regions and areas attract a significant number of short-stay Russian visitors who are often motivated by cross-border shopping and other activities.

Determining Revenue-Generating Casino Visitors Using a Vector Autoregressive Model: The Case of the G Casino in Korea

ABSTRACTThis study used a time-series data analysis to investigate the characteristics of casino visitors that affect casinos’ revenue generation. Exchange rates—a traditional measure relevant to tourism—and customer types and nationalities were empirically analyzed with a vector autoregressive model using data acquired from all branches of Korea’s G casino. The results suggest that the casinos’ revenues were affected by the customers’ type and nationality: VIP customers were very important factors in the casinos’ revenue generation; moreover, the revenue impact of Russian visitors was quite strong despite their small numbers.

From Yashwant Place to Yashka: a case study of commodification of Russian in India

ABSTRACTThe present paper is a case study of how the commodification of the Russian language has transformed a market in New Delhi, India, inaugurated in 1969 and known as Yashwant Place. Over the years, the market slowly assumed a new identity, referred to as Yashka not only by Russian visitors but also tourists from countries of the former Soviet Union, symbolizing the status it has acquired as a largely Russian (-speaking) place of trade. With the help of ethnographic fieldwork that includes participant observations and interviews, this paper traces the histories of four shops in the market that mainly cater to Russian speakers, examining both how Russian emerged as a language that provides an added value and at the same time ask, which Russian is actually commodified by whom and in which ways. In addressing the histories of the shops, the personal trajectories of salespersons and their motivations to acquire a form of Russian, this paper aims to show the particular conditions and processes that characterize the commodification of languages within specific spaces for limited audiences. This will provide insights into the characteristics of a locally confined ‘Yashka-pidgin' language that emerged as a result of commodification efforts by local entrepreneurs.

La modelización de la demanda de turismo de economías emergentes: el caso de la llegada de turistas rusos a España

International tourism is one of the most important economic sectors for the Spanish economy. However, in spite of this importance, there are not many studies that have identified the main determinants of demand for international tourism to Spain. The few existing studies are focused on the analysis of British and German visitors, without paying attention to other important and emerging nationalities, like Russians. Russia is one of the main outbound tourism markets worldwide. The dynamism showed by this market reveals a high potential, and involves a great opportunity for the Spanish tourism sector to increase its participation in the international tourism market. It is for this reason that the main objective of our research is to build a robust econometric model that allows us (i)to determine the most important variables that explain the Russian demand for tourism to Spain, and (ii)to quantify the impacts of these variables on this tourism demand. Our results show the importance of economic factors, such as the income of Russians, the relative cost of living in Spain with respect to Russia, and the relative cost of living in Spain with respect to other competing countries to attract Russian visitors. Our results also show the importance of certain specific events such as the terrorist attacks of ETA and the 11-M, the riots in some Arab countries of the Mediterranean basin, and the change in the visa policy between the European Union and Russia.

Identification of the Factors that Impact Russian Tourists in Thailand

After travel restrictions had been lifted at the end of the cold war, many Russians started journeying to the beach resort city of Pattaya in Thailand. For the Thai tourism industry to prosper and take full advantage of the Russian guests, it is vital that they understand these foreign customers. Hence, questionnaires were distributed and subsequently examined using factor analysis scores in a multiple linear regression model. To ensure that future Russian visitors will be content, it is recommended that the Pattaya municipality address the untreated waste water issues and ensure that food hygiene standards are strictly adhered to.

AMDA Member Hosts Russian Visitors

AMDA Member Hosts Russian Visitors

In the Field with Russian Scholars: Observations by an American Researcher

Those who do fieldwork are always dependent upon the goodwill of many people, but in the former Soviet Union there was an additional level of dependency. Often foreign researchers relied upon the kindness and the company of native scholars to do fieldwork outside of major cities. This was partly due to the fact that foreigners needed to obtain permission to ttavel. Legally one could not simply board a train and get off where the terrain looked promising. But Russian scholars could help one obtain permission to accompany them. on an expedition. Now things are different in Russia. One can literally just get off the ttain where things look interesting. But this approach has several disadvantages, perhaps foremost among them. being the distrust of villagers, about which Russian scholars warn foreigners.(l) In some areas people are notoriously distrustful even of unknown Russian visitors, and things are getting worse as crime rates rise in villages and villagers become more afraid. Russian scholars in the North, the Urals, and Siberia talk of long fieldwork days when they were never invited beyond the tbreshold ofa house; others report that they are allowed access to certain information only upon repeated visits, after spending hours helping babushkas hoe their gardens.(2) For foreigners who do not have the opportunity to return twice yearly to a favorite village to build trust with villagers, an introduction by a well-known and well-loved scholar helps overcome tremendous barriers. I was able to watch this principle at work this past spring, when I was invited by villagers in Kaluzhskaia oblos!' to videotape a funeral repast on the fortieth day after the death of a sixty-year old man. I was a stranger to these people, so I was shocked that they agreed to be filmed by me. When I entered the room where the repast was to take place and saw the widow lamenting, I decided not to film.. It was too private a moment. But the local woman who had brought me there motioned to my camera bag. Take it out!, she whispered. I thought I heard wrong, so I did not move. But she repeated the gesture, more forcefully, and I did take it out. What I filmed for the next few moments reflected my sense that I was intruding: I kept the camera moving over the dishes of prepared food and the photograph of the deceased on the mantel, fearing to expose the grief of the widow by filming her face. Later on, as I made eye contact with the participants in the ritual, I relaxed. I realized that most of them. completely accepted my presence. When the repast was over, several people thanked me for filming. They said they were grateful for my interest in their lives and

László Péter (1929–2008)

Professor Laszlo Peter, who died on June 6 2008 at the age of 78, was a historian, teacher and writer on the history of political ideas and the constitutional history of Hungary. Peter served on the editorial board of Central Europe from its inception in 2001, regularly contributed articles to its issues, and unfl aggingly attended meetings of the journal’s board even from his hospital bed. The last work that he published in his lifetime appeared in Central Europe, 6.1. It is hoped that a fi nal contribution, dictated during his last, protracted illness, will be published posthumously in this journal. Laszlo Peter was born in Rakosliget in Hungary in 1929 and attended the Arpad Gimnazium in Budapest’s third district. His father belonged to the lower levels of the Beamtenstand and the family was solidly Roman Catholic — indeed, as Peter proudly recalled, a distant forebear had been none other than Janos Szily, whom Maria Theresa had appointed the fi rst bishop of Szombathely. In childhood Peter was an enthusiastic Boy Scout and he spent many school holidays camping and climbing. A passion for mountaineering remained with Peter. Even in his mid-70s, he would still ‘scramble’ and raft in the Carpathians, often in the company of his life-long friend, the historian and politician Geza Jeszenszky. The outbreak of the Second World War in Hungary in 1941 did not interrupt a happy childhood. Although, as Peter later recalled, he was certainly aware that something nasty was going on in the Vojvodina, then a part of Hungary, and that all was not well with the Hungarian army on the eastern front, he remained, like most Hungarians, largely oblivious to the confl ict, continuing to camp with the Scouts as late as 1943 in Hungarian-occupied Ruthenia. All this changed in October 1944. In a Nazi-backed coup, the Arrow Cross seized power in Hungary. Overnight, Hungary’s antique constitution and its gentry-dominated society were overthrown. Within a few months, with the Red Army besieging Budapest, Peter was forced to spend long periods in the communal cellar of the family’s apartment building. One day, the little Jewish girl that he had being playing with the previous evening was removed with her family from the cellar and shot by the Fascist Arrow Cross in the courtyard above. A few months later, following Hungary’s ‘liberation’, Peter’s cousin, a violinist, was abducted by Soviet troops and never seen again. For the rest of her life, his aunt attended concerts by Russian visitors in the vain hope of seeing her missing son in the orchestra. In the years immediately following, Hungary was ‘Stalinized’ and converted into a Communist satellite. Its peasantry and middle class were destroyed; central europe, Vol. 6 No. 2, November 2008, 85–90

Zaokeanskie partnery: Amerika i Rossiia v 1830-1850-e gody [Partners across the Ocean: the United States and Russia, 1830s-1850s] (review)

Zaokeanskie partnery: Amerika i Rossiia v 1830-1850-e gody. [Partners across Ocean: United States and Russia, 1830s-1850s]. By I.I. Kurilla. (Volgograd:Volgograd State University Press, 2005. Pp. 487. Illustrations. Cloth.)Since 1970s, studies of early Russian-American relations have multiplied, and pioneering books and articles of two specialists, N.N. Bolkhovitinov and Norman E. Saul, have laid groundwork for more focused monographs. Ivan Kurilla's new book concentrates on middle decades of nineteenth century, a fascinating period of revolution, warfare, and technological change. Drawing on an impressive array of archival materials, Kurilla elaborates many of themes discussed in Saul's Distant Friends: The United States and Russia, 1763-1867 (Lawrence, KS, 1991) and Bolkhovitinov's Russian-American Relations and Sale of Alaska, 1834-1867 (Moscow, 1990; trans. 1996). Kurilla affirms traditional interpretation of Russian-American partnership based on commercial growth, Anglophobia, a lack of potential sources of discord, and mutual public sympathy. The result constitutes a depiction of an era of confidence and fruitful collaboration during which Russia appears as foremost benefactor.Discussions of wide-ranging diplomatic relations constitute book's core, yet Kurilla also deals with America's role in economic and technological modernization of Russia and evolution of national images through prisms of travel accounts and popular press. The first part of book focuses on central mechanisms of Russian-American cooperation: international politics, geopolitical ambition, and technology transfer. The Russian Empire, led by efforts of its minister in Washington, Alexander Bodisko, supported United States against British expansion in North America and enhanced diplomatic position of United States in Pacific. In turn, American entrepreneurs played a major role in modernization of Russian navy, merchant marine, river transportation network, small arms industry, and telegraph system. At a time when Russian transportation was relatively primitive, American specialists provided advice on railway construction and established contracts for thousands of locomotives and wagons. In 1840s George Washington Whistler was such an important railway consultant that his son pondered what Russia would do without his father when they returned home (169). Kurilla acknowledges that the construction of Petersburg-Moscow railway line became one of first large projects in which Russian state relied on American technology and American engineers (174). Meanwhile, Russian journalists' coverage of American entrepreneurial activity helped fuel a growing sentiment in favor of United States among reading public.In Part Two, Kurilla surveys impressions left by Russian and American travelers who visited each other's countries. In general, Americans were impressed with pace of Russia's development, its resources, and power of autocrat, yet there was some variation: American shipping magnate Silas Burrows referred to Tsar Nicholas I as the Napoleon of our day, while Ambassador George Mifflin Dallas thought tsar's willingness to do good would have made him an excellent president (219); Tennessee Governor Neil Brown deplored Russian climate, but Ambassador Charles Stewart Todd claimed Russian winter was good for his health (251). Most Russian visitors came to America on official business, keen to observe industrial, maritime, and technological practices, but a few emigrants also recorded their thoughts about democratic organization of country. …

To the Editors

To the Editors Daniel Brower Ernest Zitser is to be commended for his excellent review essay ("Post-Soviet Peter," Kritika 6, 2 [2005]: 375–92) on recent work by Russian historians on "Peter the Great and all things Petrine" (376). My attention (as a very "post-Petrine" historian and observer of post-Soviet Russia) was especially drawn to the concluding pages with the picture and discussion of Mikhail Shemiakin's statue of Peter (391–92). It holds for me a special attraction; and I have made a point, during my frequent post-Soviet trips to St. Petersburg, of returning regularly to the site. The statue impresses me particularly by its presentation of the tsar, seated in a simple armchair, reduced to human proportions (not in my opinion an "ill-formed freak," as Lindsay Hughes would have it), with his head (copied from the death mask of Peter) virtually at the eye level of visitors. It is the very antithesis of Falconet's lofty, deified image (à la Louis XIV) in Decembrist Square. Most intriguing to me over the past decade has been the gradual appropriation of the statue by Russian visitors. Foreign tourists, uncomprehending or uninterested, wander by without stopping on their way to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. But Russians have made Shemiakin's Peter one of their own, crowding around the statue and clearly enjoying this view of their tsar brought down from his pedestal to be accessible to ordinary folk. Children were the first to clamber onto his lap to have their picture taken en famille. Now grownups are doing the same. Parts of the statue (the elongated fingers in particular) have been rubbed so frequently that they have acquired a noticeable sheen. If this demonstration of familiarity is any measure of popular attitudes toward Russia's venerable hero, Zitser's forecast of a "post-modern Peter" is prescient even with regard to ordinary Russians. To me, that is a reassuring development, particularly when set against President Putin's recent efforts at a neo-Soviet revival of (in Zitser's well-chosen words) "the old, officially sanctioned moral and political order" (392). Let us hope Russian historians continue on the same path as their public. Daniel Brower Dept. of History University of California-Davis Davis CA 95616 USA drbrower@ucdavis.edu Copyright © 2005 "Kritika" and its author