Research results on ecotourism development in mountain regions of southern Russia

According to the federal law "About the tourism operation in Russian Federation" the public law deems the tourism industry "as one of the major branch of Russian economy". The tourism industry is obliged to stimulate the developing of Russian economy. However in 1994 the income of inbound tourism was 4mld $, but 12mld $ was the income of outbound tourism. Now less than 1% of world's stream of tourists are of the Russian Federation. This difference is one of the factors, which destabilizes the economy. At the same time, inbound tourism in Ukraine and Belorussia is developing very actively. In 1998 12 million international tourists visited Ukraine, the income was 8.2% of the gross national revenue of the country, and the general European is 5.5%. In the program of economic development "Ukraine 2010" is planning to increase the stream of international tourists twice or even thrice.