Methodical approaches to research of state tourism route network (on example Privolzhsky Federal district)

The article presents the research results of the tourist route network Privolzhsky Federal District. Research was conducted according to the following stages: identification of possible basic properties of tourist routes (in the following blocks: requisites, consumers, the periodicity of functioning and limits, means and ways of movement, food and accommodation services, staff, cost parameters, notes and other information); the development forms of passports route (consisting of 61 questions); collecting information from open sources and by sending the completed form to the regional specialized executive authorities; data processing; development of a database of tourist routes; identifying the current situation; findings. The information about 360 tourist routes was collected. Research results show predominance of intraregional routes in Privolzhsky Federal District, interregional routes perform the functions of integration between the tourism sectors of the economy of covered regions. Almost 2/3 of the network was formed in 2010s, by thematic most part - it is informative, educational, sporting and environmental roots. Half of the routes are not targeted on specific customers, most of the rest is focused on school children and young people. Routes of small extent and duration are dominated in regions of districts, the seasonality of routes functioning not strongly expressed, usually this is the months from May to September. Weak use the services of accommodation and food is observed. The transport of tourist companies is primarily used, nevertheless a significant role performs rented vehicles. The level of comfort of used transport is characterized as high and medium. 90% of the network is functioning on a permanent basis and is well elaborated. Price per one day of program of tourist routes in 2/3 of the cases is up to 1000 rubles, and 1/5 - from 5 to 10 thousand rubles. Thus, there is a predominance of short-term and excursion tourist routes with rigorous curriculum, with a low involvement of the tourist infrastructure, which reduces the efficiency of the positive impact of tourist activities on the receiving territory.