Abstract

The aim of this article is to show the greatest tourist attractions of the siberian Altai Republic and to show the reasons why tourists are not as interested in visiting this region as they should be because of its unique heritage. To create this article authors used information gathered during the stay in Altai Republic in summer 2011 from interviews and observations. They also found some important information in a couple of publications (written mostly in Russian) and also data and statistics available in the Internet. To evaluate the attractiveness of the studied area for tourists analysis of opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses (SWOT) was used. The results of SWOT analysis shows that the Altai Republic could be a very popular tourist destination due to its natural and cultural values (f.ex. the highest Siberian mountain, ancient tombs and petroglyphs). It is not that popular because of some reasons among which the most important are: difficult accessibility of the region, decades of neglect in transport infrastructure and accommodation facilities at the time of the Soviet Union and low level of dissemination of attractions on the international forum. The situation is getting better every year as the authorities and organizations try to show The Republic as a very beautiful, unique and friendly place with many attractions of different kinds. The increased interest in this area among tourists may also occur in connection with the observed trends in recent years. Those trends shows increase in the level of popularity geographically and culturally distant tourist destinations which are still not mass tourism destinations. (original abstract)