Development of the spiritual and cultural tourism in the Russian Far East as the soft power factor in the Asia-Pacific region

This article is an interdisciplinary study, making an attempt to expand the concept of “religious tourism” and to determine the purpose and content of the supplemented version of religious tourism. The authors justify the term “spiritual and cultural tourism”. This type of tourism is actively developing in Russia as part of domestic and inbound tourism. The Far East is a territory with tourist attractiveness, promising for visiting by foreign tourists, primarily from neighboring countries and surrounding countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The geographical position of the region, powerful recreational, historical and cultural resources are the basis for attracting foreign audiences. The author describes the diverse significant objects of spiritual and cultural tourism in the regions of the Far Eastern Federal District. The author considers multi-ethnicity and confessional diversity of the regions of the Far East as favorable historical factors for the spiritual and cultural tourism development...