Transformation of the Tourism Industry after COVID-19 Pandemic and Sanctions

Abstract

The recent reforms of the domestic economy have increased the financial gaps between different regions of the Russian Federation. More and more territories suffer from slow socio-economic development and poor life quality. A strong tourism industry may be an excellent solution if treated as a dynamic multi-industrial complex of territories. The authors used content analysis, formal logic, expert, integral, rating, and program-targeted methods to predict the transformation of the tourism industry and determine the points of its further economic growth. The assessment included the impact of macroeconomic factors, as well as the effect of the regional tourism on the local social and economic development. The article also features the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, the current sanctions, the global digitalization, and various regional specifics on the local tourism. The research resulted in a mechanism that could turn the tourism industry into an instrument of regional economic development. However, the regional tourism industry needs a sustainable state-managed development strategy.