TOURISM PROTOCLUSTERS ACTIVITY IN PERM KRAI AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF THE PANDEMIC AND SANCTIONS PRESSURE

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022) and the subsequent sanctions crisis (since February 2022) provided a fundamentally new background for the functioning of tourism clusters. The new conditions determined the need for a new set of tourism cluster support measures. In Perm Krai, a discussion on support for the region’s tourism potential was launched in the late 2021. The paper focuses on two main objectives: analysis of the tourism cluster activity during the pandemic and formulation of general recommendations on the tourism cluster development in the new context. We propose a new system-agglomeration methodology for the analysis of tourism cluster activity in the period of crisis based on our own theoretical approach. The new methodology identified two tourism protoclusters in Perm Krai that were active from 2012 to 2021. For each of the two protoclusters, we calculated key activity indicators and conducted two polls, in 2021 and in 2022. Comparative analysis and systemization of qualitative and quantitative data resulted in a complex description of each of the two Perm Krai’s tourism protoclusters at different crisis stages. Basing on that, we propose a system of recommendations on tourism protoclusters development in the new conditions.