The beginning of the era of international "mass Russian tourism": an encyclopedic presentation

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the complexity of the modern period, when geopolitical factors, as happened in the history of international tourism, again compress and tear the continuous world tourist space. This space was created gradually, its restoration will require a lot of effort again. The historical experience of Russia is of interest and provides lessons for the post-conflict restoration of the international tourist space. The article shows the structural and spatial features of international tourism in Russia in the XIX century - the initial stage of the formation of "mass Russian tourism" to Western Europe. The history of the development of international tourism belongs to the traditional and still relevant research area "Russia and Europe". The reference to the voluminous (19 volumes) French geographical encyclopedia by Elise Reclu "The Earth and people" (translated into Russian in two editions - 1887 and 1890s) is undertaken in this publication to answer two main questions: 1) the directions of international flows of Russian tourists and the centers of their formation in the countries of Foreign Europe; 2) descriptive characteristics of tourist centers of "mass Russian tourism" in Foreign Europe. The texts in the encyclopedia are very large with detailed descriptions. The result of familiarization with the content can be brief characteristics that reflect the tourist image of a particular place and city, often in a metaphorical form. This is very close to an even more concise form of a modern slogan to describe the brand of a tourist center. Descriptions of tourist places by Elize Reclu are an example of complex information-complete for their time, visual and, in fact, advertising characteristics for travelers. The sustainability of the tourist image of the analyzed cities is the subject of special research.