The methodology of research and state of the tourist route network in Russia

The article presents the results of a study of the tourist route network of the Russian Federation, which was first carried out in such a large scale. At the initial stage of the research methodology was developed, which became the basis for a comprehensive review of the properties of the destinations of 11 units: basic details, consumers, the frequency of operation and limits of the means and methods of transportation, food and accommodation services, personnel, cost parameters, notes and other information. On the basis of the questionnaire was developed (consisting of 61 questions), which was sent to the regional tourist offices. From completed questionnaires information on tourist routes was reduced in a single database in the context of the federal subjects and the federal districts. Information on inter-regional routes was collected and processed separately. All information was collected for six thousand tourist routes. Separately, was developed and tested form of gathering information on tourist routes through the Internet portal "Living Map". The results show that in the Russian Federation a marked predominance of intraregional routes. Inter-regional routes, despite their small amount, perform important functions of the integration of tourism potential of the area and are the basis for the deepening of these processes. Most developed route network is in the Central Federal District, the least one is in the North Caucasus. Most of the network formed in the 2010s. According to the subject areas are dominated by cognitive, educational, environmental and sport routes. In working with the customerfrom the tourist firms observed is weak segmentation, and the only class that acts as a support, is students of schools, universities and other institutions. In Russia there is a dominance of short-haul routes and those lasting one or two days, seasonality is a characteristic for only 19% of routes. There is an extremely low utilization of services in food and especially in accommodation, thereby greatly reducing the effectiveness of the impact of tourism activities on territories.