Prospects and challenges of developing a hiking trail network in the republic of Karelia

Russian tourism industry has undergone significant changes in recent years. New key outbound tourism trends have emerged. At the same time, some tourists who previously preferred vacations abroad have begun to pay attention to domestic destinations. This shift offers a unique opportunity to develop domestic tourism. This article assesses the feasibility of creating a trail network in the Republic of Karelia and organizing a hiking and ecotourism cluster similar to those in the Caucasus and the Urals mountains. The viability of such a tourism vector is analyzed based on a social survey conducted by the author in 2025 in the republic’s municipalities. It is proposed that single- industry towns serve as anchor points for such a trail network. A SWOT analysis was prepared as part of the study. The author also developed a scoring methodology for evaluating such settlements in terms of tourism development prospects. Parameters such as infrastructure, transport accessibility, availability of trained personnel, volunteer organizations, unique natural sites, etc. were taken into account.