Developing geocultural branding in Tuva and Bashkortostan

Abstract

The article examines the problems of branding geoculturally important objects - natural and cultural protected areas, such as reserves, parks, geoparks or biosphere reserves in Tuva and Bashkortostan. For sources of our study, we relied on official documentation of regional governments, website content, as well as data from monitoring public opinion on recreation zones, health resorts, and awareness of services available there. In both republics, tourism offers are quite similar, including environment, ethnic and geographical tourism. Tourist potential is clearly linked to the social and economic potential of the region, and regional authorities help set up and promote the status of tourist recreation zones. An obvious issue is that of scarcity of information and low awareness of tourist services among their potential consumers in the respective region, throughout Russia and outside the country. They tend to know little about the geocultural specifics and the prospects of enhancing tourism in the region - a trend corroborated by opinion polls. Among researchers, interest in tourism is clearly higher in Bashkortostan. The authors look at logos and visual imagery of a number of institutions: in Tuva, these are the Ubsunur Hollow biosphere reserve, the Tuva nature park, the Aldyn Bulak ethnocultural facility; and in Bashkortostan, the Yangan Tau geopark, the Shulgan Tash biosphere reserve and the Bashkirsky Ural wildlife reserve. All of these follow the general aim of geocultural branding, which is protecting and preserving unique geocultural heritage - landscape, flora and fauna, as well as monuments of culture. Another problem is how to account for this important component in promoting tourist services. All in all, these unique opportunities do get some promotion in the two regions, but as yet, the coverage is insufficient.