ИСТИНА

Tourism development in Russia provides plenty of opportunities for scientific generalizations on tourist mobilities. The study is aimed at systematizing practical developments (projects) of tourist routes to classify their models, typical and special problems and prospects for development. Currently, several models of tourist route organization in Russia can be identified. At first, traditional interregional tourist routes are discussed with regards to specific problems of their functioning and rebranding (for example, the Golden Ring of Russia, which marked its 50th anniversary in 2017). Next, new interregional tourist routes are now being formed. The second model consists of tourist routes initiated ‘from above’- by national and regional tourist administrations, which are later supported by tourism business stakeholders. As an example, the Silver Necklace route, which runs through the north-west of European Russia, is discussed. The third type of routes is initiated mainly ‘from below’ by tourist business professional associations and local tourism authorities. They choose the products that have the potential to become regional brand or umbrella route in future. According to Russian Association of Tour operators, a brand or umbrella route is a tourist product that promotes cultural heritage of a particular region and has the distinct characteristics like recognition, year-round character, regularity, integrity, completeness, compliance with service standards. The brand route should be evaluated by the federal executive body in the field of tourism. The forth model is represented by public projects, which are not very frequent yet and have local character, but are very important as they contribute to socio-economic development and sustainability of local communities. The combination of tourist routes of different character and scale generates a diversity of organizational and strategic decisions for effective tourism development in the country.