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Abandoned buildings in declining villages or on
farms may become second homes for urban
dwellers. Farmers may modernise their unused
buildings for letting to tourists, as in the French gite
system, or develop part of their land for caravan
sites or recreational activities. Such developments
bring renewed prosperity to poor rural areas, but
can also destroy the very attributes of the landscape
which first attracted tourists. The growing presence
of urban people changes the social character of
villages. Peak inflows of cars and caravans cause
traffic jams on narrow country roads and hinder
movement of animals. Traffic pollution, uncontrolled
pets and walkers who leave gates open can
hurt livestock and standing crops. Congruence of
seasonality for agriculture and tourism also causes
friction because of competition for workers. Thus
the balance of the costs and benefits of rural
tourism is not always positive, but in many areas
tourism is seen as inevitable.
Further reading
Bouquet, M. and Winter, M. �eds) �1987) Who from
their Labours Rest? Conflict and Practice in Rural
Tourism, Aldershot: Avebury.
Coppock, J.T. and Duffield, B.S. �1975) Recreation in
the Countryside:A Spatial Analysis, London and
Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Canoves, G. and Garcia-Ramon, M.D. �1995)
`Mujeres y turismo rural en Cataluna y Galicia:
?La nueva panacea de la agricultura?' El Campo
133: 221±39.
Unwin, T. �1996) `Tourist development in Estonia:
images, sustainability and integrated rural development',
Tourism Management 17�4): 265±76.
Russia
JANET HENSHALL MOMSEN, USA
The emergence of new active markets in Central
and Eastern Europe has been one of the most
remarkable recent developments in international
tourism. Russia, the most important and dynamic
tourism market in this part of the world, quite
deservedly has been at the centre of attention of the
international tourism industry. The country's
Russia 515
transformation into a market economy has given
an impetus to accelerated development of the
tourism market. Fewer and easier frontier and
customs formalities and doing away with limits
previously imposed on the amount of foreign
currency allowed to be taken out of the country
created favourable conditions for satisfying huge
deferred demand for travel abroad. If in the early
1980s around 2 million foreign trips by Russians
were registered annually, in 1996 this figure
reached more than 21 million. But it should be
noted that the number of foreign destinations for
the Russian citizens has somewhat increased, and
now includes the former Soviet countries and
Baltic States. The fact that these countries maintain
close trading, industrial and cultural links with
Russia accounts for the bulk of outbound tourist
traffic from the country.
In 1996, the Russians made 13 million trips to
the former Soviet countries with 90 per cent of
these journeys made for the purpose of visiting
friends and relatives and for other private
purposes. At the same time, the progress of
economic reforms, expansion of international
contacts and growth of economic activity of regions
have lead to a tremendous increase in travel of
foreign and Russian businessmen across the
country. The unique natural and climatic resources
of Russia and its great cultural and
historic heritage open up infinite possibilities for
large-scale development of tourism and its transformation
into a booming industry. In the past
two years, overall foreign arrivals in Russia
increased threefold. Some 13 million foreigners
now visit Russia annually, while the former Soviet
Union received no more than 8 million at best.
Domestic tourism has been staging a comeback
�in the late 1980s the overall number of domestic
trips reached 60 million per annum). With the
Russian outbound tourism boom subsiding,
internal demand has been switching to national
destinations and resorts which have become
more competitive in the last few years. The most
famous and demanded regions from the point of
view of development of tourism are Moscow and St
Petersburg. They are the traditional tourist and
business centres which attract up to 80 per cent of
tourists, including Suzdal, Vladimir, Kostroma and
Yaroslavl. These ancient Russian cities which form