CC BY
4A gricultural
Bulletin of Stavropol Regi
Stavropol Region
= № 4(24)/2 Supplement, 2016
UDK 338.48
Topa Z.
THE IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTING A «SUPERHIGHWAY» BETWEEN LONDON AND NEW YORK ON RUSSIAN TOURISM
Abstract: As an emerging tourism destination, Russia has a huge potential on the tourism market. As the largest country on the Earth, with unique history, cultural and natural characteristics, tapping to the tourism potential of the country is a great economic development tool.
In 2015, the construction of a highway connecting London and New York through Russia was proposed. Infrastructure investments are known to stimulate economic growth, and it is also very effective in linking remote tour-
ism attractions to other regions (thus connecting the supply and demand sides geographically).
The aim of this paper is to briefly analyze the possibilities and challenges of the proposed highway on Russian tourism.
Key words: highway, tourism, road construction, accessibility.
Topa Z. -
Student, Szent Istvan University, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciencies, H-2100 Godollo, Pater Karoly str. 1-3 Tel.: +36706674048 E-mail: topa.zoltan.szie@gmail.com
Discussion
In 2015, former Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin proposed the construction of a highway connecting London with New York through Berlin, Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and many other major cities.
The project would involve the building of not only a motorway line, but also, for example, railway-and pipelines, along with other roads in the area. According to the plans, the construction of such networks would create new jobs, even new cities, alongside with the development of peripheral regions of Russia.
The opportunities are many; as transport infrastructure is a basic component of competitiveness, it promotes trade, the flow of goods, people, capital and services. It also makes regions more accessible, thus bringing closer peripheral areas to centers.
Distance is a very important factor in location theories. If we review the theories of von Thunen or Weber, we can observe that distance determines the position of places for production and input to each other. However, many researchers have a different opinion about the role of distance. One of them, Gyorgy Enyedi wrote that distance had key role in the classical location and regional economic theories, but nowadays its role changes, usually decreases. In his opinion it is true in the production processes too, due to the changing economic structure and the technological advancement. He emphasised that in the information society time and distance loses relevance, not only, for example, sock exchange information, but information streaming between companies, in-between companies or between companies and the population.
However, it was also found that there is a strong correlation between the motorways and high devel-
opment level of the center areas, for example, in Hungary [6]. Regional differences typically originate in the flow of people, and constructing motorways contribute to this tendency - however, it can be a positive flow, not only negative one [5].
The presence and quality of transport infrastructure is also very important from the perspective of tourism. The majority of primary tourism products are not mobile; therefore, the experience gained at tourist destinations requires the actual presence of tourists.
It was emphasised by SACTRA [10] and Earnst and Young [8] that the natural assets serving as the basis of tourism products are fixed in space, therefore transport costs can be significant proportions of the total costs, depending on the proximity of those assets.
Jancsik wrote that infrastructure means a basis for tourism, which does not only determine the options of touristic development, but their directions, efficiency and volume as well [3]. Abonyiné Palotâs also argues that the development of complex transport infrastructure significantly affects tourism development, and this statement is true the other way round as well [1].
We can establish that accessibility is one of the key determinants of tourism, and building transport infrastructure can potentially improve this sector of the economy. However, there are other factors to be considered during investigating the tourism potential. Some of these factors are discussed in the next section.
Results
Safety and peace are two of the most important determinants of tourism. If the way leading to the destination the tourists intend to reach is not safe,
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Journal I* Bulletin of Stavropol Région
they will consider visiting other destinations. In order to see the potential success of the area along the proposed highway, the Global Peace Index (based on the ranking of the Institute for Economics and Peace [11]) of the countries the highway crosses are presented below (Table 1).
The best value in the ranking was 1.148 (Iceland) and the worst one was 3.645 (Syria). The majority of countries are situated among the more peaceful ones; however, Russia, where the majority of the new highway construction should take place has the lowest value among these countries, which could prove to be a problem for attracting tourists to the destinations along the highway. Of course, being the largest country on Earth, there must be huge regional differences in crime and peace ratings, which means that the areas crossed by the new motorway are not necessarily dangerous just because the ratings of the country are low. Nevertheless, safety must be ensured in the affected regions in order to be more attractive for tourists.
Table 1 - GPI in the countries along the proposed highway (2015)
Countries GPI rank
Canada 1.287
United States of America 2.038
The Russian Federation 2.954
Belarus 2.173
Poland 1.430
Germany 1.378
The Netherlands 1.432
Belgium 1.368
United Kingdom 1.685
Source: Institute for Economics and Peace, 2015
The attractiveness of destinations is another important factor. According to the Russian National Tourist Office [9], three of the ten most attractive tourist areas in the Russian Federation are possibly situated along the proposed highway. These are: Kazan, Lake Baikal and Yekaterinburg. However, even from the easternmost one of these, Lake Baikal, there is still at least 3000 kilometres of Russian territory to be covered by this highway, which does not have highly developed and defined tourist destinations.
On the other hand, Russia has a large extent of forest areas - 49.1 % of the total area of the country was forests [11]. These areas are excellent for hiking, observing unique animals and plants, for fishing, or could be the basis of hunting tourism as well. In this sense, building a highway in these areas could bring about development in tourism.
There are some factors hindering inbound tourism to Russia. According to Dimanche and Andrades, the most significant ones are:
- the language gap;
- visa issues;
- the lack of hotel and transportation infrastructure [2].
All of these are crucial in the respect of the currently discussed highway. Firstly, tourists arriving from foreign countries expect the local service providers to speak languages other than Russian, at least on a minimal level. Visa issues are also very significant, since getting to Russia from the American continent would be very difficult either due to the large distances and the possible lack of services along the highway in the first times. Visa problems would make it less possible for tourists to choose Russia as a tourist destination. The lack of hotel and transportation infrastructure is an important issue as well, since missing or low-quality hotels and public utilities or roads would also discourage people from visiting Russia.
Conclusions
Russia is an emerging tourist destination; with its large area, rich cultural and natural values, the country has a huge potential in tourism. There are many factors discouraging potential tourists (language gap, visa issues and the quality level of certain services, infrastructural elements). However, all of these elements can be countered on a shorter or a longer term.
The construction of the proposed motorway would serve this purpose, too. It is important to consider, however, that infrastructure is one of the most important element in tourism development, but not the only one.
Potential tourists need to learn about the possibilities of the regions covered by the highway: for instance, the natural and cultural values, the safety levels and the quality of services.
The areas touched by the highway also need well-defined brands, images. The recent conflicts in Ukraine resulted in a negative image for Russia [2]. However, people need to see the other sides of Russia as well, and the regions need to be easily recognizable on the international market. Although may be a discouraging factor that people generally do not have extensive knowledge about the farthest reaches of Russia, it can also be an advantage. People are attracted to the unknown and mysterious places, so the lack of information can be turned into an attractive force by smart advertisement. Naturally, only if there are high quality services coupled with the attractions.
There are other factors important for tourism development as well. For example, building highways follows a typical top-down approach. However, it is very important for the projects to be legitimate. Ritter et al (2013) stated that there is a need for the designing and the implementation of bottom-up local economic development strategies, which are based on the local resources, and which connects and coordinates the local actors. By local participation in tourism programs we can ensure that (in organising and implementing events) the development will be legitimate and the inhabitants are not only affect-
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Bulletin of Stavropol Region
№ 4(24)/2 Supplement, 2016
ed by the changes, but the ones who help forming those changes, too.
Another very important point is that tourism development such projects bring not only economic changes, but social ones as well. It means that if the highway is successful, the country level decision makers need to try to predict the changes, to counter any negative processes. This would be a great challenge, since there are many processes which cannot be indicated by economic indicators. Jona stated that the improvement of economic indicators
is only one of the criteria of regional growth (as well as the growth of the tourism sector), because the directions of spatial processes cannot be expressed properly by the GDP changes [4].
To sum it up: the investment would be exceptional in modern history, and it is very difficult to predict the potential impacts. However, the project holds many opportunities for tourism, which can be realised if the construction is supported by careful planning and preliminary assessments.
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