Typology of visitor centers of national parks of the Russian Federation

• Суржиков Виктор Иванович

  Viktor I. Surzhikov. Vladivostok State University. Vladivostok. Russia

• K.A. Maltseva

  Kseniya A. Maltseva. Vladivostok State University. Vladivostok. Russia.

Abstract. The subject of the study is visitor centers of national parks in Russia as the main features of tourism and recreation infrastructure. The aim of the work is to indicate a typology of visit centers of national parks in Russia according to the focus of their activities. The study was conducted by using typology, the methods of content, comparative and statistical analyses. Results: twenty-two indicators characterizing the
internal structure and activities of visit centers (the number of visit centers, the location of the visit center, the number of floors, the availability of a permanent exhibition, the presence of changing exhibition halls, a conference hall, a video hall, a training room, ecological trails starting directly from the visit center, an environmental site, a living room, a children's room, a library, interactive material, arranging of environ-
mental education events, souvenir sales, etc.) were identified for the study. The information was collected on the selected criteria. A typology of visit centers in sixty-five national parks of the Russian Federation was carried out. The following types of visitor centers were classified: ecological, educational, informational and cognitive-entertaining. Scientific novelty: the authors’ typology of visit centers has been devel-
oped and exemplified in the article. Practical significance: the obtained results should form the basic decision making on the modernization of existing informational and ecological-educational visit-centers, as well as for the construction of the new ones.
Keywords: visitor center, ecotourism and environmental education infrastructure, national park, typology, Russian Federation.