Book
Культуроведение Франции. Элективный курс. Учебно-методическое пособие.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce findings of comparative analysis and various models based on cultural heritage resources to foster regional development.
Design/methodology/approach – Comparison of operational schemes, market positions and branding of three successful cultural heritage centers in Germany, Great Britain and Russia demonstrates a variety of regional development models based on cultural resources and tourism development, and reveals their advantages and disadvantages.
Findings – The paper evidences the potential of cultural resources and the tourism sector as drivers for regional development, and helps formulate basic recommendations for the Russian situation requiring elaboration of adequate financial and social instruments.
Originality/value – The paper provides a complex analysis of different operational models in three European countries with regard to specific national situations and specificity of heritage operational management.
In present extended abstract cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, is considered as a facilitator of cultural and event tourism development in rural territories.
Tourism development in St. Petersburg, which is a major cultural centre, has improved in terms of the tourist flow; both tourism types and tourist products have become more diverse. These improvements give ground for a fairly optimistic prognosis for the tourist industry in St. Petersburg. At the same time, there are a number of factors which tend to endanger sustainable development of tourism in St. Petersburg. The current situation calls for a more flexible and innovative approach to industry development. Among these factors we can single out the pronounced seasonal character of tourism, short-term visits of most of the tourists, the rather conservative, academic image of the St. Petersburg culture, which compromises the city’s appeal as a tourist destination for certain tourist segments. Apart from that, the critical limitation imposed on the development of cultural tourism in general and of creative tourism in particular is the low involvement of the population in cultural and tourist events held in the city. All in all this makes it relevant to look for new approaches for creative tourism development in St. Petersburg as an important tool for the sustainable development of the industry.
The article aims at considering the existing and potential competitive advantages of St. Petersburg as a tourist destination on the basis of creative tourism development.
Students' internet usage attracts the attention of many researchers in different countries. Differences in internet penetration in diverse countries lead us to ask about the interaction of medium and culture in this process. In this paper we present an analysis based on a sample of 825 students from 18 Russian universities and discuss findings on particularities of students' ICT usage. On the background of the findings of the study, based on data collected in 2008-2009 year during a project "A сross-cultural study of the new learning culture formation in Germany and Russia", we discuss the problem of plagiarism in Russia, the availability of ICT features in Russian universities and an evaluation of the attractiveness of different categories of ICT usage and gender specifics in the use of ICT.