Competitors from the south (tourist market of the Russian empire from the middle to the end of the 19th century)

The author considers the influence and interaction of the main center of domestic tourism in the Russian Empire, the Black Sea coast of Crimea, with other regions of medical tourism, primarily with the «koumiss area» in the Trans-Volga region: Samara, Ufa, and Orenburg provinces. Publications in the periodicals of the «capital» of the Southern coast of Crimea, Yalta, as well as the study of advertising, demonstrate the deep interest of the business and editorial-journalistic community of Crimea in monitoring the development of competitors in the field of tourism, while not forgetting to give readers a negative assessment of them. This is especially true of the Trans-Volga region, whose range of services for the treatment of tuberculosis patients with koumiss largely coincided with the proposals of the Crimeans. On the other hand, the owners of koumiss clinics in the Trans-Volga region sought to enter the richest tourist market in Crimea.