Urbanization Effects On Social And Economic Development Of Regional Tourism Industry

Abstract

Tourism has significant effects on the regional economy and development encouraging inflows of foreign funds, creation of new jobs, infrastructure development. To gain a maximum profit from tourism activities, each nation develops tourism policies which involve public social and economic activities ( Aleksandrova, 2010 ). Concentration of economic activities and urbanization have been important regional resources of the global development for a long period. Modern processes of population growth and distribution cause a lot of complex problems. Urbanization is a process characterized by both natural and mechanical population growth due to migrations from rural to urban areas, and transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. Most tourists visit different cities and towns. For this reason, tourism transport infrastructure in the region should be developed. It should be noted that rural and urban settlements are not only human habitats, but sources of labor resources, including the tourism industry and its complex infrastructure. Thus, we can suggest that urbanization is the most important component of the social and economic development..

Keywords: Urbanization regioneconomytransportdevelopment

Introduction

History of the taxation contains several millennia. The first taxes had an unsystematic character and were raised as required (wars, major public projects) in a natural form (food for officials and army, construction materials, labor) (Ahunzyanova, 2008). In the process of the increase of expenses of the state, taxes have begun to be raised in cash more regularly and became the main source of monetary pay of the state. So, long time in economy, the classical idea of taxes was fundamental.

Problem Statement

Currently, the main purpose of the social and economic development of most countries and their regions is improvement of living standards. The tourism industry is efficient and highly lucrative. Its contribution to the world global product is about 12%. One in ten workers is employed in the tourism industry. Its contribution to capital investments is about 11% (Nechaev & Antipina, 2015). Integration of our country into the world economic system ensures a free access to the markets of foreign competitors, force national manufacturers to be more competitive. It requires both expertise in tourism and excursion activities and abilities to use new progressive management methods (Tomas, 2017). Russia is no exception. The national plan for long-term social and economic development for the period up to 2020 aims to increase prosperity of Russian citizens, to decrease differences in social and economic conditions of the regions, and to improve living standards. For Russia, a regional factor plays a significant role due to its large size. Owing to differences in natural and geographic, economic and other conditions of the Russian regions, reproduction processes are unique and their efficiency is an obligatory condition for the complex proportional economic development. Successful development of the region is determined by increased popularity of the region. Improvement of tourist resource attractiveness and regional tourist product quality make tourism infrastructure an attractive investment object (Birzhakov & Nikiforov, 2007). Increased investment (including foreign one) in the regional tourism industry by creating favorable conditions for tourism development improves profitability and quality of tourist services and popularizes a tourist region. A modern human, who does not find pleasure in work, has less and less possibilities for proper rest (Gechebaev, 2010). It is the essence of urbanization. Most people in developed countries live in cities. Many researchers argue that an urban life style is characterized by stress situations, fast pace of living, no social contacts. Tourism gives a chance to relax away from the city (Butko, 2006).

Research Questions

Tourism contributes to the development of urbanization processes in urban and rural settlements. The concept of tourism urbanization determines the development of cities with a dominant touristic function and all changes in rural territories under the influence of tourism infrastructure development and tourist movement (Nechaev, Barykina, & Puchkova, 2017). A fund transfer from cities to rural settlements causes a lot of changes in rural settlements and in agricultural and forest territories. It is evident that application of management methods in the tourism industry is vital (Nechaev & Antipina, 2015). The global community defines tourism as a socially and economically important phenomenon. Many countries contribute to the development of tourism in their territories and push ideas and principles of tourism on a global basis. Transport tourism infrastructure is a component of tourism and transport infrastructures (Aleksandrova, 2005). The government plays a crucial role in transport infrastructure development and control. For a long time, the government was one of the main owners of key transport resources and is one of the main investors in the transport infrastructure. It is responsible for strategic development of the transport industry being a safety and integrity basis.

Purpose of the Study

Urbanization can be an important driver in poverty and inequality reduction and environmental protection. Its measures should be rapid and sustainable. Objective processes of population settlement and scientific and practical experience say that settlement perspectives should be related to further development of urbanization and large urban structures. People will be certainly affected by urbanization processes, but their nature (positive or negative) will depend on urban planning measures.

Research Methods

As far as Russian regions have great differences in all social and economic development indices, one can suggest that characteristics of the urban system of territories are also diverse. Noticeable differences in the size and composition of the urban system of the Russian regions produce an empirical basis for assessing urbanization and urban system structure effects on the national development and identifying economic urbanization resources. Knowledge of interregional differences of the urban system of Russia helped obtain data presented in Table 01 . Moscow and Saint Petersburg were excluded from the analysis as they could add an extra variation and falsify the dynamics description. The percent of the urban population determines the size of the urban system. It changed in the Russian regions in 2005 from 42 to 92% and in 2016 – from 39 to 96%. The mean city size which characterizes the degree of agglomeration potential and scale effect utilization in the region varied from 7 to 228 thousand people in 2005 and from 8 to 226 thousand people in 2016. The percent of urban dwellers living in the largest city of the region is an urban population concentration value. The variation amplitude for this index is about 90% and it does not change significantly during the period under study. The difference in the relationship of the largest and smallest urban settlement was 220 in 2005 and decreased up to 200 in 2016. The intra-regional variability of the urban system assessed with a city size variation coefficient also differs. The variation coefficient varies between 0.5 and 2.8% and does not change in time, i.e. the degree of heterogeneity of the urban system of territories differs by more than 5 times. Variation amplitudes and variation coefficients allowed for conclusion that minimum and maximum values are not separate indices in the distribution under study.

The indices in Table 01 show that the Russian regions differ in city sizes and composition. The stability of variations in social and economic development of Russian territories and stability of inter-regional differences in the structure of the urban system can be connected. Tourism as a socially significant category improves living standards of the population and the whole region. Foreign experience shows that the key guiding force in tourism transport infrastructure management is the government which uses cooperation forms at different budget levels and public and private partnership. Supporting functions are performed by different non-commercial organizations. To encourage tourists and citizens to use public transport, it is necessary to make it comfortable, available and free. It will increase labor performance and profitability of the regional transport infrastructure and transportation volume with a view to develop tourism and improve living standards in the region. In 2015, Spain was a world leader in the tourism industry. It was followed by Germany, France, the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Italy, Japan, Canada, and Singapore. In 2015, Russia has been ranked 45th in the annual Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index while in 2013, it has been ranked 63d (www.russiatourism.ru). The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index is published every second year and covers 141 countries. An updated index was published in the end of 2017 (www.russiatourism.ru). In Russia, special attention is paid to the development of intellectual transport systems (ITS). ITSs involve information technologies in passenger transportation. Russia has accumulated experience in rendering information services and using electronic payment in intercity bus transportation. The website http://www.avtovokzaly.ru is an information resource containing timetables of intercity buses in most Russian regions. The resource provides detailed information on direct and transit transportation. The system has some disadvantages. For example, it lacks data on bus transportation in Irkutsk region. Currently, some bus stations create their own websites providing on-line booking and selling services. The official websites of Saint Petersburg Bus Station www.avokzal.ru and Ekaterinburg Bus Station “Severny” are some of the examples. As far as a lot of Russian regions provide distant booking services, the unified website http://www.biletnaavto.ru/mva/mva.php for selling tickets for intercity bus journeys was developed. Vladimir, Novgorod and Ryazan regions provide information about intercity bus journeys to the All-Russian resource and sell bus tickets through this website. Delivery of incomplete data on journeys (http://obl-vesti.ru/avtobus.html) and lack of on-line services are indicative of a low level of intercity bus transportation management in the Russian regions. Development of on-line services in the regions is not a technical issue. In Russia, there are a lot of companies which provide services involving development of websites for ticket booking and selling. For example, the system Bus station management http://www.unistation.ru is based on 1С-Bitrix Website management (http://www.1c-bitrix.ru).

Findings

Non-linear processes are characteristic of the tourism transport infrastructure. They help create and test models of the system with realistic dynamic characteristics and develop models of different processes.

The simulation model describes the structure and internal interactions in the system. The structure is based on the principles of dynamic behavior of the feedback system. The model can be a description of some observed fragments of the system (Bragin, 2002). The model describing the dynamics of processes can change levels for transforming system’s behavior in time according to the tasks for which it was developed (Birzhakov, 2010). The most promising area for building simplified descriptions of real processes for the purpose of studying their behavior in different possible situations is simulation modelling.

Life safety, road safety and environment protection are key aspects of tourism transport infrastructure management (Kluchnikov, 2009). Tourism transport infrastructure modelling aims to find optimum states which would correspond to growing transport and tourist flows, involves alternatives of transport system development, redistribution of transport flows of the region and ways to improve customer satisfaction and turn transit passengers into tourists of the region.

Efficient tourism transport infrastructure management aims to solve the following tasks:

• satisfaction of tourist transportation demand;

• safety protection, transportation speed and comfort;

• information services;

• proper service delivery level.

The main areas of tourism transport infrastructure are

• development of modern information systems for traffic regulation and control;

• creation of restricted traffic and parking areas;

• development of extensive networks of pedestrian areas, streets, squares, itineraries;

• development of garaging and parking systems, capacity increase for intercept parking and garages.

Transport infrastructure is a tool for regional tourism development. Improvement measures for tourism transport services aim to improve social and economic conditions in the region, make social benefits more affordable for people, solve economic tasks, increase attractiveness of the region. (Coles & Hall, 2008)

Specific effects depend on factors of national development, spatial relations, and functions of large cities. The efficiency of controlling mechanisms is determined by the structure of the urban system (Botashev, 2010). The competition of a small number of cities facilitates coordination but reduces chances for spatial flexibility. Despite some universal properties, in each country, the combination of benefits and drawbacks of urbanization of urban system’s structure have their own peculiarities.

To conclude, we can formulate the following hypotheses:

• Urbanization and predominance of the urban economy have positive effects on the economic development of the territory.

• Concentrated urban structure have positive effects on the economic development.

Conclusion

Urbanization is an integral and global process directed by a lot of factors and resulting in formation of cities and other more complex forms of urban settlements. Urbanization takes place in all countries. Urbanization involves successive multisided complication of cities as social and economic organisms and systems. Large cities play a crucial role. Cities with a million-plus population appear. Cities do not only grow in size, they become more organized in terms of functional and planning management. Social and economic, political and demographic factors are driving forces of population growth and rise in urbanization levels and number of large urban agglomerations. Stable increase in global urbanization levels results from rapid rise in the world economy after the Second World War, expansion of economic activities, changes in family sizes and revenue distribution, and government intervention intensification. The urban population is expected to grow so that by 2050 the increase will be 3.1 billion people, while the rise in the rural population will be 3.5 billion by 2019 and since then it will be decreasing. Urban population growth will take place mainly in developing countries. Contribution to the urban population growth is due to the natural increase (60% or more) (Bocharov & Machkin, 2012) Because of the urbanization of the modern world, decisions taken in cities will influence economic, social and ecological future of people.

References

1. Ahunzyanova, E.F. (2008). Improvement of tourist service efficiency with regard to a transport component: case study of Russian aviation transportation. Thesis’s abstract: 08.00.05. Мoscow: State University of Management.
2. Aleksandrova, А. Y. (2005). International tourism: manual. Мoscow: Aspect Press.
3. Aleksandrova, А. Y. (2010). International tourism: manual. Мoscow: Knorus.
4. Birzhakov, M.B. (2010). Introduction to tourism: Travelling. Tourism and tourists. Tourist activities. Tourist industry. Tourist product. Tourist services, worls, goods. Types and forms of tourism. St. Petersburg: Gerda.
5. Birzhakov, M.B., & Nikiforov, V.I. (2007). Tourism industry: transportation. St. Petersburg: Gerda.
6. Bocharov, B.V., & Machkin, Y.E. (2012). On some factors and peculiarities of internal tourism development in Russia. Works of the International Tourist Academy. Proceedings of Research Articles. Issue 7. Moscow: MTA.
7. Botashev, B.S. (2010). Peculiarities of the sanatorium resort facility in KMB. Materials of the 4th International Scientific conference of students, post-graduates and young researchers “Research potential of studentship in the 21 century”. Volume 3. Economics. Stavropol: NCSU.
8. Bragin, D.Y. (2002). Control of relations of tourist and transport companies: Thesis’s abstract: 08.00.05. St. Petersburg: Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finances.
9. Butko, I.I. (2006). Transport tourism services: manual. Moscow, Rostov-on-Don: Mart.
10. Coles, N., Hall, M.C. (2008). International business and tourism: global issues, contemporary interactions. London: Routledge Taylor & Frances Group.
11. Gechebaev, M.Y. (2010). Management of the economic system of tourist transportation using logistics methods: Thesis 08.00.05. Moscow: State Management University.
12. Kluchnikov, A.V. (2009). Tourism management: manual. Мoscow: Soviet sport.
13. Nechaev, A., & Antipina, O. (2015). Tax stimulation of innovation activities enterprises. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6 (1S2), 42-47.
14. Nechaev, A.S., & Antipina, O.V. (2015). Technique of tax rates and customs duties updating as the tool of enterprises innovative activity stimulation. Modern Applied Science, 9(2), 88-96.
15. Nechaev, A.S., Barykina, Y.N., & Puchkova, N.V. (2017). Analysis of Articles of Fixed Assets Renewal of Russian Business Enterprises. Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research. Proceedings of the International Conference on Trends of Technologies and Innovations in Economic and Social Studies 2017 (TTIESS 2017). Russian Volume 38.
16. Tomas, M. Bon. (2017). Minsk phenomenon. Urban planning and urbanization in the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Мoscow: Russian political encyclopedia.
17. UN World tourist organization. Retrieved from https://www.russiatourism.ru.