Geography of weekend tourism in urbanized territories (the case of Samara region)

The study is aimed at understanding the problems and determining the ways to improve the territorial organization of weekly recreation and tourism in an urbanized area. The article contains a systematization of theoretical approaches to understanding the role of weekly recreation in the life of a modern person, the influence of increasing needs for short-term relaxation on the spatio-temporal dynamics and territorial organization of tourist and recreational activities in highly urbanized regions. The author analyzes the geographical aspects of the weekend tourism development in the context of municipalities of Samara region and identifies the problems and trends aggravating the conditions for short-term recreation of the urban population, hindering the creation of new tourist and excursion offers, as well as creating threats of an uncontrolled increase in anthropogenic pressure on especially valuable natural and recreational resources and restrictions on access to the population of the metropolitan area. The article proposes the measures to improve tourism territorial organization, namely: the preservation and development of a system of recreational territories based on the creation of natural parks, the creation of conditions for the organization of amateur tourism using various modes of transport, the redistribution of inbound and domestic tourist flows based on the development of the regional transport network. It is concluded that solving existing and preventing possible problems in providing the urban population with access to quality tourist and recreational services requires improving the territorial organization of recreation and tourism based on a spatio-temporal approach and strategic planning. At the same time, the features of the territorial planning of the region, the requirements for preserving recreational territories, rational use and appropriate allocation of resources between systemically important sectors of the economy and the prospective development of the region’s infrastructure should be taken into account.