ON THE ISSUE OF THE CONCEPT OF “TOURIST ATTRACTION”

The article deals with the origin, content and various interpretations of the concept of “tourist attraction”. The emergence of the term (in the form of word formation “memorability”) was associated with the appearance of the first Russian guidebooks at the end of the 18th century. The tourist attractions are considered as a kind of tourism resource used to organize educational and other tours and excursions. The article attempts to prove that not only cultural and historical objects can serve as tourist attractions, but also natural objects, and in some cases, processes and phenomena. Natural and cultural-historical objects and phenomena become tourist attractions when they are involved in tourism production activities. Often, the tourism business “constructs” the tourist attractions even in the absence of a recreational resource. The properties of the tourist attraction are a clear geographical reference, attractiveness, information significance, involvement in tourism and recreational activities. Thus, tourist attraction is a tourist-recreational resource, which is localized in space, has a structure, attractiveness, hierarchy, information significance and is involved in tourism production activities.