Urban expeditions: the innovation of the excursion tourism in cities

The tourism and excursion industry development today leads to the fact that many cities and destinations are becoming more accessible to tourists. Therefore, tourists see less and less differences in the cities they visit and gradually lose interest in such travel. That is why the role of the guides is so important: they act as mediators and drivers of excursion innovations. At the same time, we can observe expansion of the new formats of excursion products and the rapid introduction of innovations in this area. The article is devoted to one of these innovative phenomena - urban expeditions. The work puts forward and confirms the hypothesis that urban expeditions are an excursion product, contributing to active study of the urban environment through the excursion method and forming the necessary knowledge, as well as strengthening the territorial identity of tourists living in the city. The authors characterize the features of urban expeditions and analyze the methods of their organization. The materials of the article are built based on long-term empirical research and experiment conducted with students at Russian state university of tourism and service in the Pushkinsky city district. The experiment confirms the importance of urban expeditions in conditions of a visually unattractive and inconsistent excursion environment, they can also be considered as mechanism for developing a positive attitude towards it and strengthening territorial identity.