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Role of historical cities in the tourist breading: (Case study of Republic of Tatarstan)
The concepts of an image, state, region and cities turned out to be an effective instrument in the tourist industry since it handles these concepts. Tourism has an advantageous multiplier effect and serves as an accelerator of the social-economic development. As the social development is taking place within the territory and the change of the functional status of territories and cities’ image is an all-around and continuous process, the evaluation of cities’ role in the touristic attraction of the region is an urgent task. This study studies main functional components of a city from the viewpoint of a touristic attraction (presence of recreation resources, ease of travel to the touristic object, presence of foodservice outlets and accommodation means) and their significance in the formation of the touristic brand. Basing on the numerical score the researchers calculated an integral index which shows the level of touristic-recreation sphere development of the cities in the Republic of Tatarstan. As the result of the conducted investigation the researchers pointed out some problem issues which are connected with the insufficient or limited resource base, unsuccessful system of the tourist services of tourists and visitors. The capital’s break-off of the other cities of the republic according to the main indices forms the feeling of capital hegemony. An even development of the touristic infrastructure in all the cities of the republic is necessary to create a single regional tourist-recreation field.