Russia is a country that has experienced enormous political, economic, and social change in recent years.

This change has had a major impact on tourism in Russia, inbound, outbound, and domestic. In this case study, we will explore tourism in Rusia in terms of these changes and the obstacles facing the Russian tourism industry today. Firstly, however, we must remind ourselves of the recent history of Russia to see what has actually taken place in the country in recent years. Some milestones in its recent history are as follows: 1987- President Gorbachev initiates democratic reform and some freeing up of the centralized, state-controlled economy. 1991- Gorbachev resigns after a failed coup, and in the Soviet Union, a grouping of 15 Republics under the control of the Russian broke up. Rapid price rises began in 1992 as state subsidies were removed. In 1993, a programme of privatization of enterprises began. The year 1993 also saw another attempted coup, this time against the new President Yelstin. Beginning in 1994, large units of Russian troops have been involved in a war in Chechnya, part of Russia which is demanding independence. From 1997 to 1999, Russia suffered a major economic crisis in which its currency, the Rouble, plummeted in value and inflation rose to a very high level. The results of all these changes have been the rise of a tiny, extremely rich elite, sometimes involved in corruption and dubios business activities, while the vast majority of the population have fallen into relative poverty. The country has developed an unwanted reputation for civil unrest and crime. The price of everything form bread to hotels has also risen dramatically. These developments have all had major impacts on the tourism industry. The changes have also had direct impacts on tourism industry, such as the freeing up of the borders for inbound and outbound travel, the privatization of former state airline, Aeroflot, and the growth of private airlines. At the same time state subsidies have been reduced for government-owned tourist facilities. The old Soviet government tourist agency, Intourist, which had a virtual monopoly of the tourism industry in the Soviet Union, now has to compete with the growing number of private sector tourism organizations. As a result af all this, the Russian tourism industry has faced unprecedented problems and chalanges over the past decade or so, as we all see shortly, but first we need to say a little about Russia as a country. Russia, or the Russian Federation as it is know, is a huge country which covers more than 6,000,000 square miles and representes three-quartes of all the territory of the former Soviet Union. It is still the largest country in the world. It has around 150 milion population of many different ethnic groups, although Russians represents 82 per cent of the total population. The climate is extreme with winter-summer temperature variations as high as 100 C. Much of its territory is remote and inhospitable, althought Russia has a wellestablished, largely reliable transport sector. It is now time for us to look at how inbound tourism has changed in recent years. Inbound tourism It is difficult to compare tourist arrival data for Russia today with that in the 1970s and 1980s when Russia was part of the old Soviet Union, which included other Republics which attracted tourists, such as Ukraine, Georgia, and Uzbekistan.

In 1999 the Russian Federation was ninth in the international league table of tourist destinations, with 2.8 per cent of all international trips. The increase in inbound tourism since 1988 is partly explained by the growth of business tourism once the economy was privatized. It is also a result of the fact that after the end of the Soviet Union, tourists from former Soviet Republics such us Ukraine, the Baltic States, Georgia, and Byelorissic are now seen as inbound tourists. In 1988, and indeed throughout the existence of the Soviet Union, most Russian inbound tourists came from other Soviet Republics or Soviet States in Eastern Europe. They did not come from the major tourist-generating centres of the world such as Germany, the UK, and the USA. For example, in that year, only 8 per cent of all tourist, around half a million tourists, came from these three countries. That is because, at this time, these countries were enemies of the Soviet Union in the so-called Cold War.