History and current state of excursion activities in the Republic of Karelia

In the modern world, tourism plays a significant role in the economic development of regions, helping to attract investments, create new job places and improve the standards of living of the local population. Excursion services seem to be an integral part of the tourism industry. Their assortment as well as quality directly affect the level of consumer satisfaction and tourism industry development in the region. This paper is devoted to the study of history of excursion services in the Republic of Karelia, as well as the analysis of the current state of the excursion market in the region and the identification of trends in its development. The purpose of the paper is to study the history of excursion activities in Karelia, to analyze excursion services that have developed in the tourist practice of the region from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, to determine modern directions of development of excursion services in the region and to create recommendations for their development. The study revealed that both tourism and excursion activities in Karelia are characterized by seasonality. In the excursion market of the region over the years of its development both basic excursions associated with visiting popular attractions and other excursions determined by the historical periods of the territory development and the society needs, have been formed. The main flow of tourists arrives in the region in the summer and during the New Year holidays. One of the options for overcoming the seasonality factor is to develop year-round original excursion routes associated with digitalization, personalization, theatricalization, interactivity and immersion. To promote excursions, it is necessary to use the capabilities of modern aggregator sites, platforms for audio excursions, chat bots and other technological tools. This will not only attract more tourists and excursionists to the region, but will also contribute to the sustainable development of the tourism industry as a whole.