Rural regional museum as the guardian of «Living culture of territories» (the experience of Kuladinsk local history museum, Altai Republic)

The article is devoted to the value of the rural regional museum in the formation of the region’s tourist attractiveness based on example of Kuladinsk regional museum (Altai Republic) located on the territory of the ethnic nature park «Uch-Enmek». The article presents data demonstrating the tourist attractiveness of Altai Republic for the last five years. The authors consider the unique character of ethno-natural park «Uch-Enmek», outline tourist and recreational potential of the park and the role of the museum in formation of tourist flow. The article presents the characteristic of Kuladinsk museum. The importance of proximity to the museum mounds and rock paintings is emphasized. An analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the Kuladinsk local history museum operation are carried out; possible threats and the available potential for its development as tourist destination are shown, the conclusions based on it are made. The authors defines the main problems, among which are the low museum attendance and the reasons of it, lack of funds for the maintenance and development of the museum, the lack of a single integrated exposition of material during excursions through the natural park and the museum. The article states the need to «promote» the museum, and, namely, hiking trails across the nature park «Uch-Enmek» as part of the tourism product. At the same time, the authors emphasize that the museum is a value in itself and performs its own function, in particular the role of guardian of the «living culture of territories», hereby acts as powerful «tourist magnet» - destination forming a tourist attraction of the region.