Autotourism itinerary development methodology

Autotourism development in Russia presupposes provision of its comprehensive support, including autotourism itinerary development. The article presents an algorithm for itinerary selection as factored by a number of evaluation criteria. Itinerary selection is a multistage process and encompasses activities from collecting data on attractions to making a preference-informed decision. Therefore, the author regards it as important that the data available on the characteristics of the tourist resources of a targeted region be supplemented by information on autotourism services on route and on site. The optimal itinerary selection process is based on a few criteria: mileage, road time as determined by the trafficability of the route, service supply index, en-route additional attractions, safety infex, etc. for the purposes of a multi-cretiria-based itinerary selection, the author suggests that Harrington's desirability function and the desirability scale be used. The complex/summarized integrated index serves to indicate the optimal itinerary. The methodology proposed by the author can be applied by professional participants of the tourist industry, and HE faculty engaged in research in autotourism itinerary development.