Water-motor tourism in Volgograd: the essence, features and current development problems

The article studies water-motor tourism as a separate distinctive and very promising type of water tourism, which has a unique consumer value. The author analyzes the existing varieties of water tourism, clarifies the definition of water-motor tourism, defines its types and functions. For Volgograd, water-motor tourism is of particular importance, since the Volga River is traditionally one of the main attractions that attracted tourists to the region and determined the development of Volgograd as a tourist destination. The developed market of water-motor tourism can compensate for the lack of organized beaches in the city and attract fans of various types of water recreation. Using the method of historical analogy, the main problems of the water-motor tourism market in Volgograd, which has turned from mass into elite, are shown. At the same time, neither the existing system of legislative regulation nor the existing infrastructure provides an adequate level of security and consumer attractiveness of this type of tourism. Both locals and tourists face the problem of a shortage of places for launching motorboats and their storage, high prices for all attributes of water-motor tourism, unreasonable territorial and temporary bans on swimming in the Volgograd water area, the lack of an effective information system for water-motor tourism such as navigation maps available to owners of small vessel, and prompt notifications about changing weather conditions.