Religious tourism development (on the example of the Leningrad region)

The article indicates the approaches to the definition and content of religious tourism, evaluates the types of religious tourism: pilgrimage tourism and religious tourism of excursion and informative orientation. The authors identify the role and significance of pilgrimage from the perspective of an actively developing direction of tourist activity. The authors evaluate the potential of the Leningrad Region in terms of the possible religious tourism development. As an example, the historical and cultural characteristics of the Orthodox religious organization «The metochion of The Svyato-Vvedensky Optina Pustyn monastery» are given. In order to expand the geography of the pilgrimage center «Optina Pustyn», it is proposed to organize a new tour «Around the Optina Pustyn». To strengthen the cultural and informative activities of young people, it is proposed to create an Informational center on the territory of the metochion of «Optina Pustyn» and organize icon painting courses on its basis.