Museums and overtourism. Problems and solutions in the developing destinations

Special attention of visitors to many tourist objects leads to such negative phenomenon as overtourism. Researchers assign a number of the problems related with it: wear of infrastructure and cultural and historical objects because of the high anthropogenic loading, traffic collapse, environmental pollution by consumption waste, gas pollution and noise. All of this can lead to environmental disaster and discontent of local population with consequences inevitably introduced by the tourism development, including increase of crime rate, terrorism, cultural depreciation of national holidays, etc. The solutions of the problems offered by several authors rely on the demarketing strategy for the territories exposed to overtourism. But it entails certain risks. Rapid tourism development in Tula region has also led to emergence of overtourism problem of the region. The museums of federal importance, such as «Yasnaya Polyana», «Museum of Weapon», «Kulikovo Field» and «Polenovo» the first have faced the challenges of overtourism. The article analyzes their attendance in 2018, considers tour operator’s programs of other region that include these objects, and describes examples of the negative consequences of overtourism in destinations of Tula region. The authors offer solutions of the overtourism problem for every considered tourist object and conclude that addressing the overtourism problem requires multipurpose programs.