Mythological tourism space of samara land: realities and opportunities

Article is devoted to the study of mythological tourism space of Samara land. Mythological tourism space exists equally with other types of tourism spaces of the region: cultural and historical, recreational, service, ethnic, sporting, scien- tific to and other. The author reveals the mail features of the mythological tourism space. It is a system consisting of geographical space, mythological cultural heritage of territory and it use in tourism practices. Based on the system ap- proach all elements of mythological tourism space are identified and presented as applied to Samara region. All variety of myths is divided on the groups; in more detail the topological, religious, myths about caves, folklore, and historical myths are researched in the article. The author analyzes certain tourism practices, where the use of myths is possible and makes the conclusion that, in spite of abundant base and various studies of myths, their use in tourism of Samara land still insignificantly, and mythological tourism space is on the early stages of development. In this connection, Samara land needs to not only study the myths, but actively to involve them in tourism space of cities and settlements, be- cause development of mythological tourism space makes territory unique and contributes to increasing the tourist flows. The study was supported by Russian Humanitarian Research Foundation Grant 14-03-00036 «Spatial-Temporal Diagnos- tics of a City».