Tourist guides for family tourists: significance and development features

The article discusses the importance and development features of tourist guides for family tourists. The author presents historical aspects of the appearance and development of tourist guides in the world practice and the change in their ideological purpose and content as a separate type of publications related to the tourism industry. A review of guidebooks dedicated to tourist attractions located on the territory of the modern Republic of Karelia is made. The article highlights the main content elements of guidebooks and their classification. The main content of the article is related to recommendations for creating tourist guides for family tourists, which will be useful both for organized tourists purchasing tours and for organizing independent travel. Approaches to the development and design of guidebooks for family tourists should be based on such principles as convenience, reliability, relevance, visibility of information; the possibility of regular updating of the material; focus on this target audience; interactivity; ensuring the implementation of digital content that is relevant for modern travelers of the XXI century. The author selects headings useful for creating travel guides, considering convenient accommodation for family holidays, meals for children and adults, leisure activities, accompanied by a variety of visual components: photographs, illustrations, tasks, riddles, puzzles, maps, helping to navigate the area, additional tasks for adults and children. Through the examples of guidebooks prepared by students of the Department of Tourism of Petrozavodsk State University, we can see a variety of approaches to their design and presentation of material.