Tourism in Eastern Europe and Russia
Note: Europeans are now sometimes calling “East” Europe, “Central” Europe,
implying that those former SSRs that are east of Russia itself are “Eastern”
Europe today. Got that?? I’ll show you on a map.
BRIEF AND GENERAL OVERVIEW
–most of these countries were former colonies of now dissolved empires,
are less prosperous, less urbanized, and have a poorer infrastructure
than countries to the west
–more Catholic to the east and more Orthodox and Muslim to the southeast.
-Although very old cultures, many of the current boundaries are the
products of World War I and the Inquiry
Note: The poorer and more conservative voters in the countryside, in a weird twist
of history, vote Communist at times
In Tourist type tourism was popular here – until 1990, now shifting – similar to that
of Cuba now and Nicaragua in the 1980s.
From text notes, most (but not all) of these countries were under Soviet influence
until 1990.
Cultural diversity
– including architecture, cuisine, and art
– an important tourist resource here
Also: spas, especially in Hungary and the Czech Republic
and the capital cities themselves
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
1. Northern European Plain
from where to where? Important for whom??
2. Central Mountain Zone
Carpathian Mountains are the most important here
Tatra Mountains between Slovakia and Poland are also important
3. Danube Basin
longest and most famous river in this region
cuts through a whole series of basins, centers on various cultural groups
4. Southern Mountain Systems
Dinaric along the Adriatic, across from Italy
these are famous for their karst topography–what?
And indeed the study of karst began here
CLIMATES: north tends to be humid continental warm summer, not unlike us
warmer to the south, along the Med–med. Climate (not in the highest
mtns, of course!)
POLAND
Traditionally caught on the Northern European Plain between the Germans and the
Russians given that, no surprise that its capital, Warsaw, is largely rebuilt
since WWII
Largest country in this region, both in terms of pop (40m) and area
Problems of tourism – where’s the beach? climate similar to northern Germany
Considered “cheap” by western and northern European standards
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS:
1. Baltic coastal zone
coldish beaches, lakes, wildlife, and fishing
Gdansk – is located here – seaport with very attractive architecture, also
home of Solidarity
2. Mountains in the south popular with skiers
Old spas. such as the one at Wisla are also in this area
3. Cities
Warsaw: the capital
lots of multi-national chains established here in the 1990s,
Hotels, that is
Most of the city destroyed by the Germans, much of historic core
rebuilt, but not the Famous Jewish ghetto, which is now a park
(largest % of Jews in Europe had been in Poland)
Krakow: older, medieval capital not destroyed in war,
has the largest medieval market square in Europe,
Wawel Castle on the Vistula River
Hungary: unlike most Eastern European countries
not Slavic, but Magyars
had larger boundaries, but was on the wrong side of WWI, and lost
territory after WWII as well–
Note: this is a landlocked country, so no beach of any kind!
Domestic tourism is therefore of major concern, but numbers of foreign
tourists are growing
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
1. Budapest: focus for foreign visitors
Buda is the old royal city on the hilly (left) bank
Pest – the commercial city on the right bank
More night life than any other city in Eastern Europe
Castle Hill
New hotels being built, but hotel shortage
Corso (river walk)
2. Lake Balaton: the largest freshwater lake in this region, also needs
More and especially more modern accomodation
3. Country has 545 hot springs, spas are popular
CZECH REPUBLIC
Note: “Velvet Revolution” of the early 1990s.
Bohemia, in the west, is a rolling basin surrounded by mountains on three sides and
is the economic and political core of the country,
-Tourism has a very long history here, notably at Karlovy Vary, which had
been called Carlsbad and for which the American Carlsbad Caverns is
named. This is an 18th century spa town much favored by the
aristocracy and royalty of eastern and middle Europe.
The waters at Karlovy Vary taste awful!
Prague, the capital
claims to have the largest historic district in Europe
lots of films (notably Amadeus) made here
fine baroque buildings and full of Counter Reformation–what? Churches,
many of which are now used to give concerts
ATTRACTIONS in Prague include:
The pedestrianized Charles Bridge
with life size statues of apostles (see slides)
Prague Castle
St. Vitus Cathedral
Wenceslas Square (actually the main commercial street)
Old Town Square
Jewish Cemetery
Note: in the slides all the signs of Americanization!
TOURISM IN RUSSIA
Introduction
R.I.P. USSR in 1991! Were 15 SSRs, of these the largest, the “core” was Russia
Russia is effectively a land-locked country, with few ice free ports. Roads are poor
by modern standards, still the largest country in the world, almost twice the
size of the next three (Canada, US and China) 170 degrees of latitude and
eleven time zones!!
But the core of the nation remains the cities on the Russian Plain, which is an
extension of??
Humid continental is the major climate type here
Note: as text points out, tourism monies made here are less than those of Poland
and only one -fifth that of France–why??
Today VAO INTOURIST (the remnants of the old intourist) handles over a quarter
of all tourism, still tied into the hotel, restaurant, transport infrastructure
When I was there, the best hotels had been buildt by Europeans to help host the
Olympics, now there are American, etc based chains as well
Still problems in terms of service, food and entertainment
Tourist Attractions (see text for attractions besides the ones below)
Moscow is the most important tourist city
Kremlin means? Is a ? What does it look like in the slides??
Red Square, Lenin’s Tomb, the restored GUM department store
Excursions on the Moscow River, the Bolshoi Ballet also important
Daytrips from Moscow include the monastery and cathedral town of Suzdal
(see poster in my office) and the medieval city of Vladimir.
Note: the Art Deco style skyscrapers beloved by Joe Stalin in the slides, they
include Moscow State University
St. Petersburg – Moscow dates from the 12th century, Petersburg from the
18th – reasons for its location?
Different appearance from Moscow??
This was called Leningrad from the 1920s until 1991, some of us will still slip!
This is a planned city like Washington, DC, with broad avenues and
impressive parks in the middle of a swamp (like DC)
Hermitage Museum (former Winter Palace of Catherine the Great)
Summer Palaces in the coutnryside of both Catherine and Peter the Great,
occupied by the Germans during the Siege of Leningrad–see slides
about this
One of the largest squares in the world
Note: “heroic statuary” dating from the 1930s
TOURISM IN CENTRAL ASIA
Note slides from Tashkent and Samarkand, the Muslim influence
TOURISM IN SIBERIA
Note vernacular architecture
TOURISM IN CHINA
This is a country of great tourism potential
Great scenic variety in a landmass the size of and with climate types roughly
similar to the US
Much of the core of China could be categorized as humid subtropical
-Note however, that the monsoonal rains of the summer often result
in torrential downpours and major floods!
-Shanghai has a climate similar to South Carolina,
-To its north Beijing has a climate similar to southern Maine
Modern tourism dates from the reopening of China to the West in 1978,
dipped sharply after the suppression of the pro-democracy movement
in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.
Tourism infrastructure was rapidly built up in the 1990s–now over 100 cities
and towns open for tourism.
Note that most of the population and the majority of the large cities are in
eastern China, which is the home of the Han people, who make up 94%
of the Chinese population
The General Administration of Travel and Tourism has a virtual monopoly on travel
and tourism in this country, like the old Intourist in the former USSR
The largest number of visitors to China are classified by the Chinese government
as “compatriots” which means?? (Chinese government regards these areas as
part of China)
also are the “overseas Chinese”
Who are the largest group of foreign visitors? (Hint–gravity model)
Tourist Attractions
The Chinese culture and the amazing transformation of the Chinese urban
fabric are the major tourist attractions here
Note: In Russia, transportation tends to be by air or train rather than by road
1. Beijing
-well, the capital, of course
-Imperial Palace (Forbidden City)
is the Peace, Chairman Mao is equivalent of the Kremlin for the
Chinese ..
–Tiananmen Square
250 acres in all, is just south of it
name comes from the Gate of Heavenly buried here
-Beijing Zoo
one of the best, with the Giant Pandas
-Parts of the Great Wall of China are just outside the city
4,000 miles long, visible from space, over 2,600 years old
-Ming Tombs
(see discussion in the textbook) are also nearby
2. Shanghai
–China’s largest industrial city
-Most important contact point for Westerners in pre-Communist China
–this is reflected in the old “Bund” area contains many museums, gardens
(such as the Garden of the Purple Clouds of Autumn)
3. Xi’an
-This is the site of a famous excavation, that of the buried terra
-cotta army of soldiers and horses belonging to the Emperor Q in Shi Huang
4. Guilin
–this city and its region in se China evoke the classic Chinese landscape in
western eyes,
-with heavily eroded limestones hills and mountains and meandering rivers
and river cruises on the river Li.
TOURISM IN JAPAN
Japan is very much in the “red” in terms of tourism expenditures – this makes
sense because???
A very crowded country by our standards, about 126 million in an area the size of
California
Travel by “office ladies”–especially to Europe
Western style “white weddings” in the US very common
Text discusses three factors that hinder tourism growth in Japan:
1. language and cultural barrier to outside visitors
2. Prime cultural attractions appeal to a relatively small segment of the
foreign market
3. Expensive travel and land costs for overseas visitors
Very seasonal tourist season – October – who? and July and August
who goes?
Gravity model again–first from South Korea, then Taiwan, then US
Japan’s tourist attractions are a unique mixture of the traditional and the modern,
successfully adopting western industrialization without sacrificing cultural
identity
A number of theme parks were developed in the 1989s and 1990s, of which Tokyo
Disneyland is the best known
There are now 27 national parks, based on the American model and over 300
reserves and designated landscapes. Despite the beauty of the countryside,
most foreign visitors focus on the cities
Tourist Attractions
1.Tokyo
is the most important destination for both foreign and domestic tourists
City pop is over 8m metro are over 25m
Imperial Palace and the nearby Hibya Park are the major tourist attractions
Ginza district of shops and restaurants is familiar to Americans who have
been stationed in this part of the world
2. Mt. Fuji
is the symbol of the countryHakone is the main spa town and resort near it
3. Kansai
district of great importance for foreign visitors, contains the historic inland
city of Kyoto with its
Tourism in the MIDDLE EAST, with a focus on Egypt and Israel
Introduction
Middle East as a tern refers to? And comes from?
The culture of this region is a vast tourism resource–pilgrimages are made to a
number of holy cities here by Christians, Muslims, and Jews. The flow of
Christian and Jewish religious tourists increased greatly when Jerusalem fell
under Israeli control in 1967.
Problems for tourism include frequent political unrest, especially in Israel, the
problem of tourism in Muslim dominated countries, which often have
extremely conservative views (including not allowing alcohol), incomplete
infrastructures in Egypt
Modern tourism to Egypt dates from Thomas Cook in the mid 19th century–Cook
began steamship service on the Nile and developed Luxor as a winter-sun
resort.
Today there is an obvious split in terms of tourist visitors
Westerners come in the?
Arabs come in the?
Westerners stay only for about six days, Arabs (now about one-third of the
market) stay for about a month
Tourist Problems
In the 1990s there was a decline in western tourism due to the rise of right wing
fundamentalism, resulting in attacks on some western tourists! Another
problem is the high cost of travel from the main tourist generating countries
of the West (Britain, Germany, and the US)
Tourist Locations
Most tourism is concentrated in the Nile Valley, where the industry must compete
with other sectors for scarce water, power, and land resources.
Most attractions admired by western visitors date from the Old Kingdom (2650 to
2350 BC) when the great pyramids and other tombs were built.
Tourist Attractions
1. Cairo
–the primate city, largest city in all of Africa
-Pyramids of Giza, outside the city are a major attraction here
-the Egyptian Museum in Cairo contains one of the best collections of
ancient artifacts in the world, including objects from King Tut’s tomb
-Memphis (this is the original one!), the oldest capital, is near Cairo
2. Luxor
-the Valley of the Kings
-the Queens upstream on the Nile (familiar to us from James Bond and
Indiana Jones movies)
3. The port of Alexandria
-on the Med. has great sandy beaches, ancient ruins, and the Egyptians are
developing holiday villages both here and on the clear blue waters of
the Red Sea
TOURISM IN ISRAEL
it is important to watch the world news before visiting this country, as sporadic
violence is very common!
Note: the population of Israel is only 5 million, the country dates from 1947,
Hebrew and Arabic are the official languages, but English is widely
understood
One interesting part of Israeli tourism is the length of stay of visitors which is
very long, about 21 days.
22% of all tourists are American Jews, many of whom have family ties, and so can
be classified “VFI”.
So they stay a good long time because???
Another 25% or so of the visitors come from Western Europe, especially Germany
and France
Tourist Attractions
The principle attraction of Israel is religion, centering around the holy cities of
Jerusalem and Bethlehem, with holy sites located throughout the country.
In Jerusalem
–Dome of the Rock, where Mohammed is said to have ascended into heaven
Wailing Wall, important to the Jews Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
Garden of Gethsemane
-also important museum there, the Israel Museum , which contains the
Dead Sea Scrolls
North of Jerusalem is the Sea of Galilee
Dead Sea – you can float!