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PROBLEMS OF MASS TOURISM FORMATION IN USSR IN 1960’S–1970’S (BASED ON THE EXAMPLE OF WEST AND EAST SIBERIA) // Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2016. Issue 9 (174). P. 51-58

The topic of tourism development in Russian regions is very relevant today, since it is related to regional economy development. Hence, problems and prospects of the tourism industry development more and more attract researchers’ and public attention. The article revealed the problems of mass tourism formation in Western and Eastern Siberia regions through exposing forms and directions of tourism industry development in those regions in 1960s–1970s. The problem of tourism in certain Siberian regions is considered by the researches in their works, some aspects of tourism development in Siberian regions are touched on many conferences, devoted to the problems of tourism development in various Russian regions. This gives the right to claim that the aspect of reconstructing forms and directions of regional tourism development in Siberia is discovered insufficiently. Therefore, the author addresses primary sources, namely, archive documentation. The main base draws up previously unpublished archival sources. Materials of the State Archive Fund of Novosibirsk and Kemerovo oblasts contain information about the volume of transportation showing mass tourism development in the given period. Materials from the Russian Federation State Archive contain statistical data on travel volumes and the number of tourists in the analyzed period. Experience in the tourism industry development in Siberian region would help to reveal the preconditions and to present the trend of mass tourism development in the country during this period. The change to a five-day working week with 2 days off prompted the demand for recreation, which was increasing among the soviet population. Along with the expansion of organized tourist trips, the mass initiative tourist movement was getting the increasing popularity. The different forms of initiative tourism worked: trips “Auto stop”, alpinist tours, walking local and regional tours, week-end trips, etc. By the end of the 1960s, tourism was converted into a single-union system demanding comprehensive centralized management with material and technical base, established only on the basis of a unified system approach. Central Tourism Department put the plans that have been successfully carried out by regional councils on tourism, implementing the decisions of the Central Committee of the Party and the decisions of the Soviet Government. The effective management of administrative practices on the one hand stimulated the mass tourism and excursion industry development, but on the other hand hindered its effective control in the regions.

Keywords: history of tourism, regional tourism, tourism development trends in USSR, initiative tourism, organized tourism, tourist-excursion sphere, region, Siberia, trips, USSR