Prospects for Industrial and Post-Industrial Tourism in Kuzbass Coal Mining Cluster

Abstract

This article explores Kuzbass potential for industrial and post-industrial tourism, drawing on successful foreign experience and several Russian cases. We identified common international trends in using industrial heritage and outlined the challenges that Russian companies are facing on the way towards a post-industrial paradigm. Western industrial museums present their local industry in the global context, while showing its impact on local community and culture. They make a wide use of modern technology, establish links with science and business, support local arts, and involve authentic members of the industry. Russia, however, can boast very few examples of industrial tourism (e.g. the Krasnaya Gorka Museum in Kemerovo), which is largely seen as having a purely academic appeal. Yet, Kuzbass, with its long history of coal-mining and other industries, has very extensive prospects in this type of tourism. To prove it, we performed a SWOT analysis of a prospective tour into reclaimed lands which showed far more strengths and opportunities for integrating local community, business, and industrial heritage than weaknesses and threats.