Promoting The Cultural And Historical Heritage Of Resorts Through Internet Resources

Abstract

The problem of preserving the cultural heritage and promoting it into dynamic modernization development is associated with the historical and cultural memory in the processes of identification of the individual and society. This is especially true for regions that do not have developed industry or agriculture, and are positioned mainly as tourist-recreational or resort areas. These zones include the region of Caucasian Mineral Waters. For its development, it is important not only to preserve the existing historical and cultural layer, but also to ensure its popularization and promotion, attracting new tourists and holidaymakers to the Kavminvody. Modern information technologies make it possible to do this using the resources of the global Internet. The article considers the issue of creating a specialized Internet resource that will collect, store and popularize information about the cultural and historical objects of the Caucasian Mineral Waters. This is a database that will be presented on the Internet as a website. On the site you can find both popular articles about the history and features of the selected object, as well as more complete and specialized information collected by historians, local historians, architects, artists, restorers. The data that is planned to be presented on the site can be useful both to specialists working on the conservation and use of the cultural and historical sites of the Caucasian Mineral Waters, and to tourists who can use the Internet resource to create routes for walking and trips to interesting but undeservedly forgotten tourist sites Caucasian Mineral Waters region.

Keywords: Historical heritageCaucasian Mineral Watersconservation of monumentsdigital models

Introduction

The relevance of the popularization of historical and cultural monuments is described within the modernization and globalization. Under their influence, there is a rapid, sometimes spontaneous, change of borders, national structures, deformation of traditional social institutions. And globalization in conjunction with the informatization of society leads to the emergence of a new, networked sociality that combines information and technology (Wittel, 2001).

Accelerated globalization according to the American model experienced an active resistance from the national elites of the countries of the world because of the frank neglect of the sovereignty, economic and cultural interests of these countries, up to the willingness to use military force in order to achieve the goal of universal integration and unification. An attempt to impose an approach that ignores cultural identity did not success in China and India, Islamic states, Russia and many other countries. This happened, first of all, because the culture differs from country to another, and connected to the fabric of their socio-economic life. Culture is an integral social form of countries with its own history, traditions, value, and special mentality. Researchers note that even the state’s international image largely depends on its achievements in the field of culture, education and tourism (Asadov & Baranov 2017; Pimenova, 2016).

Historical and cultural heritage is the most important component of the national identity of the peoples of Russia, and this, according to Russian researchers (Shchukina, Dyatlov, Serikov, Skudnova & Posukhova, 2016), is one of the factors of state security of the country. The strategic direction of state activity in the field of culture should be the preservation and protection of the cultural heritage and cultural memory of all the regions in Russia. In other case, Russian society will not be sustainable, might fail many challenges of the modern world, lose its multinational identity in the process of implementing information, economic and social modernization.

Problem Statement

Post-industrial digital civilization has realized the highest potential of cultural heritage, the need for its conservation and effective use as one of the most important resources of the global economy (Vodopyanova, 2017). Losses of cultural property are irreplaceable and irreversible. Awareness of this problem as an archival task has led to the programs for the preservation of cultural heritage in almost every state.

In the State Program of the Russian Federation "Development of Culture and Tourism" for 2013 - 2020, one of the tasks of the state is stated as "preserving the cultural and historical heritage of the people, providing citizens with access to cultural values". Among the expected results of the Program implementation is the formation of electronic and Internet resources of libraries, museums, theaters. Thus, the law amendment suggested by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation closely links the problem of preserving the objects of historical and cultural heritage not only with the development of tourism, but also with the popularization, promotion of branded places of Russian regions in the digital Internet space. According to the researchers who studied the development of the digital cultural environment the law on have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to legislatively consolidate the digitalization of culture (Duguzheva & Simaeva, 2019).

Research Questions

Informatization of society transcends the boundaries between representatives of different cultures, being open for anybody in the world with an access to a global network. Thus, modern digital technologies contribute to the intensification of information exchange. Therefore, to solve the state task of preserving and promoting the cultural heritage, more and more attention is paid to the potential of the digital information environment. One of the most common ways to popularize objects of tangible and intangible culture, in fact, are Internet resources and a variety of multimedia technologies.

Today, digital technologies in the field of culture are used both for creating virtual 3D museums and exhibitions (Kiourt, Koutsoudis, & Pavlidis, 2016), and for digitizing and subsequent study of archaeological sites (Xipnitou et al., 2018). In the field of tourism, digital technologies have a wide variety of applications - from finding places in hotels and drawing up walking and hiking routes to electronic audio guides and helping to find missing tourists via GPS.

Purpose of the Study

A distinctive feature of the Caucasian Mineral Waters as an agglomeration is a complex combination of unique natural health factors and the presence of a powerful spiritual base associated with cultural institutions.

In addition, Caucasian Mineral Waters have a peculiar architectural and stylistic appearance - the leader of the resorts with their attractive regional features, the space of the cultural landscape formation (Thakakhov, 2017).

Caucasian Mineral Waters are located in the area of complex tourist-recreational interweaving and complementation with the high-mountain resorts of Elbrus and Karachay-Cherkessia. At the same time, Caucasian Mineral Waters compete with the sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory, Sochi and Krasnaya Polyana. So, Caucasian Mineral Waters attract tourists with higher cultural, aesthetic and spiritual needs. This fact is a serious incentive for the preservation and study of the historical and cultural heritage of Caucasian Mineral Waters, for the implementation of a creative and creative approach to its promotion and presentation to potential vacationers and tourists.

The aim of the study is to analyze the possibility of creating and using an Internet resource that would provide information support for the preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of Caucasian Mineral Waters resorts in a global network.

Research Methods

The archive of Russia's cultural heritage in Pyatigorsk alone contains more than 150 monuments of architecture, history and archeology. And in standard city tours offered by numerous travel agencies, to some extent only 15–20 historical and cultural sites of Pyatigorsk are mentioned. This leads to the formation of a somewhat narrowed idea of the appearance of the resort among tourists (Semina, 2018)

Cultural objects are also included in the process of informatization. So, almost all CMS museums (and there are more than thirty of them), educational, theatrical and exhibition venues have their registration in the network, which allows you to get an idea of the specifics and dynamics of cultural processes that are embedded not only in the all-Russian, but also in the international information space.

For a long time and successfully carry out visual communication, the State Museum-Reserve M. Yu. Lermontov (more than 1,500 subscribers), Kislovodsky National Park (almost 300,000 subscribers), Pyatigorsk Museum of Local History (750 subscribers) and many other cultural objects of the CMS.

Instagram today is the main platform where photography, graphic design, advertising, texts, hashtags and other forms of presentation and communication coexist together, moreover, bilaterally. However, all this applies to individual cultural institutions with staff, their budget and the possibility of organizing promotion on the Internet. And there is currently no Internet resource containing information on dozens of cultural and historical sites of the Caucasian Mineral Waters on the global network. There are lists of objects recognized as monuments of various levels posted on the websites of federal and regional ministries, on Wikipedia, on the websites and web pages of local history enthusiasts, but these lists do not provide a complete picture of the historical and cultural monuments of the Caucasian Mineral Waters, often contain incomplete or inaccurate information. Therefore, it is obvious that the need has ripened for creating and updating a publicly accessible database with complete information about most of the cultural and historical objects of the Caucasian Mineral Waters.

Findings

A database of historical and cultural objects should include not only a repository of relevant information about the history, location and condition of these objects, but also serve as the basis for creating a mobile travel guide for tourists (Pisarenko & Kotlyarevskaya, 2019).

At the same time, in addition to informative and educational, the database should perform the functions of public accounting of objects to protection, restoration or reconstruction. The database should also include documentary sources available for everyone to receive information about the historical context of the development of regions in the Caucasian Mineral Waters.

At the first stage of work on the base, the developers focused on presenting materials on Pyatigorsk.

Access to the created database of historical and cultural objects of Pyatigorsk is implemented in the form of a site that has a structure oriented to the average user.

The catalog of articles for simplicity and speed up the search is supplemented with preview images of each object (Figure 1 ).

See Full Size >

When you go to the page of the selected object, the visitor can see photos of this object, an article about it, a map indicating the location of the object.

At the moment, articles about the historical sites of Pyatigorsk are superficial in nature, but subsequently professionals – historians, local historians, writers, Lermontologists, specialists in urban studies, architecture, and art will be involved in writing the texts. In addition, it is planned to conduct a constant dialogue with visitors to the site who want to contribute to its development and collection of materials for the database or who would like to ask questions about the subject area of the site to relevant specialists. Such questions can be discussed in the Forum, group chat or the Feedback form.

For each object presented on the site, it is planned to lay out reference information: on the level of the monument's significance (federal, regional, etc.), on the degree of preservation and need for restoration, on the property belonging to resort or other organizations or private individuals, on the prospects for further use of the object etc. Thus, the description, photographs and information about the location of each Caucasian Mineral Waters object of cultural and historical value should be reflected on the site over time and be available for everyone. Based on the data posted on the website, it will be possible to create a complete tourist route on a topic, put it on the map and get complete information about the objects included in it.

This approach is relevant for the practice of mass tourism, concentrating mainly on the presentation of the city destination (historical center, hotels, shops, etc.), and for independent travelers.

Conclusion

The idea of creating a database of historical and cultural monuments of the Caucasian Mineral Waters and realizing access to it through the website was considered at the regional event “Heritage and Heirs” (Semina, 2018). The platform for discussion was Pyatigorsk State University. Architects, historians, art historians and local historians approved the conceptual and visual-practical embodiment of this project. It was significant to attract a comprehensive interest in the cultural and historical heritage of the Caucasian Mineral Waters industry, not only of the tourism contingent, but also of specialists from various fields in science and art.

Thus, the openness, the ability to use the database by various participants and discuss current issues, allows us to expand this project to the entire resort group of the Caucasian Mineral Waters.

References

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