Religious tourism: return to essential aspects and impact on the development of the region's economy

The subject area of this research is religious Orthodox tourism and modern development trends of its directions in Russian regions and abroad. The hypothesis of the research is based on the assumption that during the last few decades of the religious tourism development in Russia, its structure has taken shape and become seriously complicated. Comprehension of the specific and essential features of religious tourism types is necessary for the implementation of this direction at the regional and national levels. The research is based on a comparative analysis of the content of domestic and foreign sources, which sanctify the problems of this branch of recreational economy. Beyond that point, the author has collected and generalized empirical data in the course of personal participation in numerous routes of religious topics over a 10year period. As a result, the article presents the author's view on the main scientific definitions, on which the subject area of the religious tourism research is based, detects new branches of development within the pilgrimage and excursion cognitive directions, discloses their essence and denotes development prospects at the regional level. The author proposes to include to the new sections of religious tourism religious calendar and event types of pilgrimage, as well as pilgrimage as a kind of previously allocated spiritual pilgrimage tourism. Aside from that, attention is paid to scientific tourism of religious orientation, the essence of which was not previously disclosed in scientific works, and the idea of which was reduced to rare mentions. The results of this research can be used in planning the implementation of the development directions of religious tourism at the regional level, considering that the region has possessed historical, cultural and infrastructural potential for economic activities in this direction.