Transformation of essential approaches to the semantics of the relationship between recreation and tourism

Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (KarRC RAS), Institute of Economics 185000, Petrozavodsk, Russia

^* Corresponding author: vasnask@gmail.com

Abstract

The paper examines the process of transformation of scientific and scientific-organizational approaches to the semantics of the relationship between recreation and tourism. There is no well-established terminological apparatus for the determination of phenomena, processes and relations in the sphere of human life, which are described with such definitions as “recreation”, “tourism”, “tourist activity”, “recreational system”, “recreational activity”, etc. in everyday communication and in Russian literature. In turn, to manage such a regional economic subsystem as a recreational one, it is important to present its structure and relations between its spatially distributed elements within a certain conceptual framework. The result of the analysis and comparison of the approaches of different groups of scientists and regulations to the definition and content of the concepts of “tourism” and “recreation” was the opportunity to draw several conclusions: recreational activities are a meaningful basis for the development of many types of tourism; separate recreational activities are not tourism; some types of tourism (business, shopping tourism, etc.) are not based on recreational activities; both residents and non-residents of the regional recreational subsystem use its recreational services; the concepts of tourism and recreation and their derivatives are not identical, they intersect and complement each other in the economic dimension.