Sports and health tourism in Crimea: problems and development prospects

The article gives an analysis of the problems and prospects of the sports and health tourism development in Crimea for modernization of this tourist region of the Russian Federation. The article is focused on the sports and health tourism in Crimea and namely on the content and organization of services in this field of tourism. The relevance of the study stems from the fact that tourism has never been a significant part of the economic complex of Crimea. Currently, only 6% of direct payments to the local budget come from the tourism industry, but in 2010 it is tourism in all its forms was proclaimed a priority of economic policy in the region. Results of the study can help to identify the main competitive advantages of this entity of the Russian Federation on the international tour- ism market and development prospects of sports and health tourism in Cri- mea. Modernization of the region will contribute to its transformation into a center of sports, as well as attraction of financing tools for the development of tourism destinations and an increase in tourist traffic to the peninsula from all over Russia, neighbouring countries and beyond. Wide experience of stud- ies of Crimean touristic potential confirms that increasing the tourist flow for sports, improving the material and technical base and the quality of services in the field of sports and health tourism in the region, especially in the context of import substitution, is one of the Russian Government''s priorities. Region- ally, the tourist flow is still focused mainly on the "beach" recreation, not on sports tourism (caving, biking, hiking, rock climbing, diving, aero-tourism, orienteering, etc.). As a consequence, currently Crimea is significantly behind in quality of services and infrastructure of such Russian centers of sports as Krasnodar, Stavropol, Altai, Kamchatka and Baikal region. Although Crimea has great potential for health and of sports tourism services (mountain for- ests, turbulent rivers, numerous gorges, the Sea of Azov and the Black sea, the salt lakes and more). Analysis of sports and health infrastructure of the region can be applied to the development of practical recommendations for the use of touristic potential of Crimea as a source of financial income in the Russian Federation budget, means of improving employment and quality of life, a place for the mainte- nance of tourists’ health and for their involvement to sports tourism activities (as young people, and adult population), the basis for the development of social and cultural environment and patriotic education.