Studying the possibilities for tourism development in Russia in COVID-19 pandemic: a sociological research

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the tourism industry development in the Russian Federation in comparison with global tourism development trends. According to the UNWTO, the number of international arrivals decreased from 1.5 billion in 2019 to 381 million people in 2020. This is the biggest decline in the modern history of the tourism industry. The Russian outbound tourism market in 2020 fell, comparable to the global trend, by 72%. During the period from January to September 2020, 9.875 thousand Russians traveled with the purpose of tourism, while during the same period in 2019, such tourists were 35,200 thousand people. Epidemiological restrictions on the movement of tourists strongly affected not only the volume of tourist demand, but also its structure. An online survey was conducted to identify tourist preferences and intentions in the pre- and post-coastal period. The total sample of respondents was 3,550 people. According to the results of the analysis, we see that there is an asynchrony of global trends in the development of the tourism industry with the Russian reality. According to the results of the study, recommendations were made, which are aimed at improving tourism policy at the country and individual regions.