Developing the hotel industry in the regions of the Great Golden Ring: spatial and functional aspects

The paper is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the spatial, functional, and economic aspects of the hotel industry development in the regions of the Great Golden Ring (GGR) of Russia. The research is based on a recreational-geographical approach using methods of hierarchical classification, comparative, statistical, and analytical analysis. Key indicators were used to assess the level of the hotel industry development: saturation of the hotel services market, average load on a hotel room, volume of paid services, tourist flow parameters, provision of related infrastructure, personnel potential, and the seasonality level. Significant spatial differentiation of the hotel industry within the GGR has been identified. The leaders are the Moscow, Yaroslavl, and Tver regions, while the Kostroma, Ivanovo, Tula, and Smolensk regions are characterized by systemic lag. Particular attention is paid to regions with a imbalance between high tourist flow and insufficient infrastructure development. In the Kostroma region, with 11,374.8 trips per 10,000 population, the provision of room stock is only 3.6 rooms per 1,000 guests, with a load exceeding 110 people/room per year. In the Yaroslavl region, despite significant tourist flow, a structural imbalance was identified, manifested in a shortage of catering establishments (47.95 seats per 1,000 residents). Systemic problems include: structural deficit of the room stock, low diversification of the hotel offer, pronounced seasonality, personnel shortage, and low economic efficiency. To overcome the imbalances, a set of measures is proposed, including investment incentives, development of all-season tourism, support for small and medium-sized businesses, and staff training programs.