DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS FOR INDUSTRIAL TOURISM IN THE CHEBOKSAR CITY DISTRICT

Abstract

The Cheboksary city district has a good tourist and geographical position. The city is situated on inter-regionaltourist routes (river cruises, car routes) and neighbors large agglomerations of the region. All this can help attract a significantnumber of tourists. Yet, natural-historical and cultural resources are inexpressive, and, therefore, the city has an insignificant touristand recreational base. The main region’s attraction is the ethnic culture of the Chuvash people. However, it is strongly deformed,there was no component of urban architecture in it and this component is almost absent at present. It appears that a new focus onindustrial tourism, based on the production system of the city, will make it possible to attract tourists to Cheboksary. Industrialtourism is a new direction of tourism and it has been included in the list of tourist services in Russia relatively recently. For thisreason, industrial tourism as a phenomenon has been little researched and this study is the first to consider it from the givenperspective. The purpose of our research is to analyze the possibilities of the industrial (production) system of the Cheboksaryurban district in terms of the development of industrial tourism. The economic entities of the city were assessed on the basis ofexisting GOSTs and standards enshrined in regulatory legal acts. The city has industrial heritage sites represented by ‘industrial’museums. Among the most famous ones is the unique Scientific and Technical Museum of the Tractor History of the Tractor PlantsConcern. On the territory of the city, there are specialized exhibitions of science and technology. The development of a relativelynew tourism direction requires significant material expenditures not only from the owners of industrial enterprises but also from thecity authorities. It is necessary to develop and implement in municipal government bodies an appropriate organizational and legalstructure that would provide organizational, methodological, technological, and material assistance in the creation and promotionof production-tourist-excursion products. Industrial tourism is undoubtedly possible, but for now on a small-scale basis, and mainlyfor solving the image problems.