The Impact of Digitalization and Infrastructure Development on Domestic Tourism in Russia

Abstract

The tourism industry is a powerful tool for developing the country's economy, as it contributes to creating new jobs and capital inflow. Tourism development is closely linked to the development of infrastructure, as well as to the rapid introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) and extensive digitalization. The authors assessed the impact of digitalization factors and infrastructure development on domestic tourism in Russia. Two final models were described as a result of the econometric analysis. The number of tourists in the region was chosen as a dependent variable, and the infrastructure development index (IDI) /transport development index (TDI), the costs of implementing and using digital technologies, and the number of hotels proved to be significant explanatory. Our analysis shows a 1% increase in the сosts of introduction and use of digital technologies in the first model corresponds to the rise in the number of tourists in the region by 0.15%, and by 0.13% in the second model. The results indicate that 1 unit rise in the TDI leads to an increase in tourists by 20.2%, and the IDI growth by 1 unit implies to an expansion of tourist flow by 70.5%, which is due to a reasonably low spread of these indices. Thus, the development of domestic tourism is closely related to the spread of digital technologies in the regions and infrastructure development