Geographical Interpretation of the Tourist Process

Abstract

The most important tasks of geography in the context of shaping the theoretical foundations of tourism include the need to substantiate the essence of an integral epistemological object (tourist system) and identify the mechanisms of its functioning. The presence of tourist processes is the main essence of the actual existence of the tourist system. The objectively inherent conditions for the implementation of any process are as follows: the presence of an object or phenomenon, that is, the actual substance that changes or is in the process; presence of time changes; the presence of spatial connections and their geospatial localization; the geospatial and temporal orientation of object changes. The tourist system is considered as a generalized object, that is, a substance that changes or is in the process, and in the context of geographic methodology it is conceptualised as a tourist-geographic system. The mechanism of the functioning of the tourist system should be understood, first of all, as connections and relations within the system that are formed under the influence of a set of factors and subordinate to the general goal of the system. In order to clarify the essence and peculiarities of the tourist process, we substantiate the hypothesis of isomorphism of transport, transport-geographic and tourist processes, the common defining feature of which is mutual relations. Connections mean material, energy and informational exchange between geographical objects. Primarily territorial connections, namely those connections that are carried out by overcoming space, are considered. The common features of the given definitions are: first, the presence of a transportation operation in the each of them, the essence of which is the spatial (territorial) movement of people; second, both transport and tourist processes are sub-processes of the general socio-geographical process, and therefore they cause changes both in the socio-geographical system in general and in the touristic-geographical system in particular. The definition of the tourist-geographical process is proposed as a set of actions and operations that make possible geospatial connections between the elements of the tourist-geographical system. The constituent parts of this process should be considered primarily the transportation and transfer of tourists from one type of transport to another, which have a clearly defined spatial and territorial character and constitute the essence of tourism (territorial movements, travel).