Report on field work within the project
"Nature tourism as a tool for developing Muezersky District and enhancing nature protection"
("Nature tourism development plan" section)

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border=0 alt=""> Field work within the project "Nature tourism as a tool for developing Muezersky District and enhancing nature protection" ("Nature tourism development plan" section) was implemented on June 11-20 in the Muezersky District in line with the specially developed survey technique. The activity within the field phase was the sociological survey of various social groups of the local community, including:

• interviews with representatives of local authorities (Muezerka, Lendery, Reboly), including the following clusters of questions:
  • socio-economic situation in the Muezersky District and individual local areas (villages Reboly, Lendery);
  • pre-requisites and conditions for nature tourism development, including cross-border tourism (spheres and objects attractive to tourists, motives for tourism, status of the tourism infrastructure);
  • current role of tourism in the district life (rough estimate of tourist traffic: number of visitors, their native country, visit purposes);
  • perspectives for nature tourism development, including cross-border tourism (potential gains and losses for the local community, possibilities of expanding and diversifying tourist activities);
  • evaluating the role of the border in the life of the local community;
  • personal experience of international contacts; evaluation of the institutional role of local authorities in international collaboration.

  
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  border=0 alt=""> Preliminary analysis of the sociological information has shown that the Muezersky District local authorities generally view tourism development in the district in the long term as a practical possibility. They believe it will benefit the district by reviving the economy and improving the social situation. On the other hand, when evaluating the preparedness of the local community to participate in nature tourism, local authorities are quite pessimistic. The authorities are concerned with the need for substantial financial investments in building the tourist infrastructure, which is currently virtually nonexistent. The district budget allows no allotments to that. Tourism involves significant financial costs. Resources could come from external investors, republican authorities. Local small business also has some possibilities, but cannot fully provide for tourism development. Local people could get involved in the tourist business: provide home accommodation, meals, transport, act as guides, sell handiwork, etc. Water tourism development project is quite real already now. Assistance from Тacis may trigger the activities. Small business may get involved here. Its tasks would be to continue creating the network of tourist routes, build new stopping sites and provide security. There exists however another problem - difficulty of access for tourists, especially from abroad. The checkpoint serves business only. The Muezersky District may become a "closed zone" in the nearest future. The decision is nearly final. The situation may defer all tourism development perspectives or ruin them altogether.

• interview with managers of major Muezersky District enterprises and organizations, and entrepreneurs, including the following clusters of questions:
  • Socio-economic status of the enterprise (administrative and legal structure, property structure, economic development perspectives, major economic problems, markets, management, social problems);
  • Promising lines of the Muezersky District development;
  • Attitude to tourism development in the district (potential benefits for the enterprise, concerns about changes in the market infrastructure, willingness to get involved in the new business);
  • Evaluation of the effects of tourism development on the life of the local community (ecological situation, business situation, social comfort, criminal situation).

  
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  border=0 alt=""> The first results of the sociological survey of representatives of the Muezersky District businesses appear as follows. Local business feels quite cautious about the perspectives of tourism development in the district. The district economy is represented chiefly by logging enterprises focusing on the export of lumber. Managers of the enterprises are afraid that forest use regulations may grow tougher in connection with nature tourism development. On the other hand, they recognize they would benefit from the operation of the Inari simple-procedure checkpoint. Small business, represented by motor transport, trade and food enterprises is willing to get involved in tourist activities right away. Entrepreneurs in the Reboly village have some initial facilities for starting the tourist business (transport, building for a hotel, bakery). Furthermore, they see no other ways for developing the area and link their hopes for the future with tourism. Forest resources there are nearly exhausted, so that they would not provide stable income to maintain the district population in the mid-term already. Development of the wood processing industry may revive the area, but it requires even greater investments than tourism. Entrepreneurs believe the village of Reboly could subsist on tourism. In order to set it going, the local community must be consolidated. They will not be able to make the business work all alone. Help could be provided e.g. by logging enterprises. Besides, republican authorities could invest in the construction of the tourist infrastructure. The tourism development programme for the Muezersky District needs to be developed.

• interviews with local activists
  • vil. Reboly: Igor Kramarov, Village Council Deputy, Sergei, Kuz'menkov, Sergei Erkoev.
  • vil. Lendery: Lyubov' Val'kova, Lyubov Manuilova.

    Problems discussed with local activists:

    • effect of the borderline position on the life of the local community
    • potential spheres for the development of the territory
    • tourism development perspectives
    • specific proposals for participation in tourism development.

  
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  border=0 alt=""> Local activists support the idea of developing tourism in the Muezersky District. This will both revive the economy, and stimulate the local community to culturally integrate with western countries. International projects implemented in the district have already tilled the ground for further integration. Tourism holds not only economic promise. Solutions related to the development of the business require consolidated efforts of the local community and this will help it act more concertedly, reach agreement on many issues. The need to find new ways to develop the territory shall motivate the local community to coordinated actions. One of the effective forms of interactions oriented towards the fulfillment of complex social tasks is social partnership. The tourism development idea can consolidate the authorities, businesses and people of the Muezersky District.

• Questionnaires for the Muezersky District households.

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border=0 alt=""> The questionnaire survey covered 197 households, including 86 in Muezerka, 58 in Reboly and 53 in Lendery.

In addition to questions about the socio-demographic structure, employment, income, consumption patterns and social orientations of the local people, the questionnaire includes a whole section dealing with local tourism development perspectives. Express information provided in the annex to the report (separate file) gives an overview of the attitudes, willingness and potential participation of local people in tourism development.

The sociological information gathered within the field trip has been treated. A computerised database in the SPSS format has been made with the information, permitting the analysis of the problems raised in the project. The analytical material represented in this report is just the very preliminary conclusions and thoughts of the project experts concerning the situation in the Muezersky District in terms of nature tourism development.