ИСТИНА

Suzdal, a small town in Vladimir region, the first historical and architectural reserve in the country with 3 cultural sites included in the World Heritage list is a real gem of the «Golden Ring of Russia». Over the past fifty years the amount of visitors to Suzdal has increased manifold whereas its population started to decrease. The tourist flows are dramatically uneven as Suzdal is visited shortly on weekends and holidays and is almost empty during the week. In recent years tourism development has been diversified by cultural, historical and food events that gave further aggravation of the problem and led to overcrowding in peak dates and local infrastructure destructive overloads. Moreover, local community is not able to feel the significance of tourism development as taxes pass by local budget because of the museums federal status and external property owners. Still, many locals are ready to support tourism growth and diversification under any circumstances as they are involved in tourism business. Latest Airbnb survey showed that the most welcoming hosts in Russia live in Suzdal. Another part of the population expresses extremely negative attitude towards overcrowding and further growth as residential productive and social functions extend far beyond tourism activities. It is necessary to form long-term engagement with local communities for qualitative studies of destination evolution. In 2024 Suzdal is going to celebrate its 1000th anniversary. A number of measures is being developed to help the town minimize conflicts and overcrowding and get additional economic and social benefits – both for residents and visitors.