Segment of “literary tourists” in Russia: an analysis and classification

Literary tourism is one of the most controversial concepts in the modern tourism industry. On the one hand, literary tourism is widespread and presupposes visiting attractions related to the life and work of writers. On the other hand, the demands of modern tourists today go far beyond standard excursions and passive observation. That is why today we can say that fame of work or writer no longer guarantees literary attractions the effectiveness and popularity among tourists. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to study the types, demands and motivations of literary tourists. The analyses of the foreign articles and scientific work on segmentation and profiling visitors of literary destinations made it possible to develop a methodology for studying Russian literary tourists. The methodology was based on a combination of method-content analysis, survey and in-depth interview with further interpretation of the research results. Content analysis allowed us to select basic museums and estates, whose visitors we subsequently involved in a large-scale survey. The survey included three groups of questions: 1) a standard block to understand the socio-demographic profile; 2) a block of questions about familiarity with the work of the writer/poet and a critical analysis of the object’s communication with visitors; 3) questions aimed at understanding motivation and the request for authenticity. The study confirmed existing global trends, made it possible to identify types of literary tourists and link a satisfaction and motivation to visit and the tourist’s level of knowledge of the author’s works. We can conclude that literary tourism in Russia has huge potential and significance.