This article follows two important interconnected aspects. On one hand, it investigates whether the political factors represented by the presence of ethnic minorities can be a catalyst for tourism ...development in cross-border regions, in addition to the development of transport infrastructure. On the other hand, it offers a comparative analysis and territorial diagnosis of the Bihor-Hajdú–Bihar and Maramureş–Zakarpattya cross border regions, analyzing the main tourist indicators and the advances made in the development of the transport infrastructure with a role in the development of tourism. The paper is based on desk and quantitative research involving national and regional statistic data. Research on the literature regarding Hungarian–Romanian and Romanian–Ukrainian borderland was also realized, in order to conduct comparative analysis useful to identify and evaluate the factors linked with tourism development. Using a multiscale approach, the objective is to determine if there is a correlation between the development of the transport network and the increase in tourist traffic. The results show that transport infrastructure plays a critical role in ensuring the connections of border regions. Although the two regions are contiguous, there is an obvious difference in cross-border traffic due to the presence of two different types of border. The transport network and tourism situation in Bihor has improved in the last years, especially under the impact of cross-border cooperation, but the accessibility remains relatively low. In Maramureş, the development of cross-border connections is based on cultural exchange, and less on economic relations. Transport accessibility is a strong point of the Hungarian–Romanian borderland and represents an obstacle for the development of tourism in the Romanian–Ukrainian borderland.
Rural areas and peripheral borderland territories are experiencing socio-economic marginalization featuring depopulation, population aging, and an increasing inequality gap in the quality of life ...compared to cities. Integrated rural tourism is argued to be ideal for supporting the well-being of rural communities, providing an additional income, decreasing unemployment, offering new and appealing jobs out of traditional rural activities, while preserving the conventional lifestyle. In this study, we discovered the tourism capacity of rural borderland territories affected by cross-border tourism using the data on the geography of cross-border movements, the distribution of tourist sights, and the density of tourist accommodation facilities. The geographical scope of the study covered two cross-border coastal regions—the Russian–Polish region on the Baltic Sea and the Russian–Kazakh region on the Caspian Sea. The statistical and geoinformation analysis were used to allocate areas of prospecting rural tourism integrated with cross-border movement. The research results on the development and distribution of tourist infrastructure suggest that: the rural territories of these regions feature tourist attractions and accommodation facilities at a different level of density and remoteness from the border crossing; each cross-border region is featuring different types of travel restrictions for tourists; and both border-land territories show asymmetry by the more active Russian tourists traveling abroad. Each of the regions under consideration is attractive for cross-border tourism while having different degrees of penetration of tourist flows into the interior territories and coverage of rural areas. The study resulted in a tourist flow model that allows integrating rural areas.
This article presents regional-level data that can be used for comparative territorial studies on innovation dynamics. The dataset covers a series of 50 indicators grouped into a matrix of 5 elements ...of regional innovation system (human resources – HR, infrastructure, research & development sector – R&D, innovative milieu, framework conditions) and 5 components of innovation security (economic, scientific and technological – S&T, social, political, geo-ecological). This complex set of interrelated data enables to grasp the catalyst and inhibitor factors that have a significant impact on the sustainable development of a particular regional innovation system. The innovation security approach used enables to consider the locus of innovation processes, account for the relationship between individual components of regional innovation systems and acknowledge for the unique properties of the regions. The database includes statistics for a total set of 85 regions of the Russian Federation over a period of 2015 and 2016. Spatial differentiation is made on to coastal and inland regions. This enables to identify the development patterns as influenced by the global trend of coastalization.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on both national economies and everyday life. Massive lockdowns and a shift towards digital technologies forced people to adapt to technological ...innovations in their daily routines in a new online format. In this study we identify patterns of change in the population's adoption of and receptiveness to digitalization. The focus is on registering the expansion of digital routines influenced by the coronavirus depending on the place of residence, infrastructure and demographics. The results of a population survey held in August 2020 across all municipalities of the Kaliningrad region of Russia suggest that the magnitude of the pandemic's effect in accelerating digitalization is different for various population types. Most receptive to digital innovations are residents of economically developed municipalities aged 26-40 with higher education having a stable Internet connection at a fair price. The article presents a typology of municipalities on the adoption of and receptiveness to innovation. It is shown that without the established infrastructure, technological, economic, cultural and behavioural basis, the acceleration of digitalization does not occur.
Issues of uneven distribution of wealth have been at the cornerstone of human geography since the inception of this discipline. Inequality in socio-economic values is found at all geographical scales ...both within and across regions – districts of cities, municipalities of regions, regions of countries. Polarization and alignment processes are subjected to close attention on behalf of research and political institutions worldwide, yet there is still no consensus on their assessment, forecast or possible measures of control and regulation. The aim of our research is to undertake comparative analysis and define the different methodological approaches to the assessment and evaluation of inter-regional divergence and convergence processes. The three major groups of methods are applied to test the divergence dynamics of Russian regions by their socio-economic characteristics – based on settlement patterns, industry clustering, and quality of life. The evaluation process is based on statistical grouping method, correlation and graph analysis using databases of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation. Policy recommendations drawn upon the research results are addressed to public authorities for changes to be implemented in the regional policy.
Contemporary socio-economic space is based on spatial networking of a wide range of actors involved in the process of co-creation of value. These interactions expressed in entrepreneurial ...'co-opetition', interpersonal relations, territorial embeddedness, reflect a certain degree of proximity among its members. Different configurations of participants and their networking generate a variety of forms being conceptualized, such as the industrial district, technopolis, cluster, etc. Objective desire of the state authorities and other stakeholders to reproduce the best practice imprinted in these concepts triggers the development of respective state support programs, focused on the development of existing nodes. In this context it is especially important to develop a mechanism of identifying the attributes and the territorial boundaries of whatever type of spatial networking implied. The article clarifies the concept of the boundaries of spatial networking based on an interdisciplinary approach, involving consideration of a number of factors (spatial, temporal, institutional, social, cognitive, etc.). The types of boundaries of the spatial networking and a description of their basic properties are identified.
Coastal regions are generally conceived as highly advanced in terms of socioeconomic and innovative development. Acting as international contact zones, coastal agglomerations are described as ...gateways for absorbing new knowledge, technologies, business cultures, etc. Yet, this perception is based on studies of large coastal cities and agglomerations. In our study, we focus on coastalization effects manifested in rural settlements and evaluate the innovation capability of the economies of coastal rural areas. The research scope covers 13 municipalities of the Leningrad region, including 134 rural settlements. The research methodology is structured into three main blocks: the evaluation of the human capital, assessment of the favorability of the entrepreneurial environment, and analysis of susceptibility of local economies to innovations. The list of analyzed innovation dynamics parameters includes the geospatial data for the distribution of population, companies and individual entrepreneurs, localization of specialized support and innovation infrastructure, sectoral analysis of the economic structure, digitalization aspects, et cetera. The data coverage period is 2010–2019 with variations depending on the availability of individual indicators. The research findings reveal particular features of the countryside as compared to urban settlements. Strong asymmetries are observed between the development of rural settlements cross-influenced by coastalization, near-metropolitan location, and national border proximity.
Throughout the history of humankind, people have settled along seashores. The gradual accumulation of population and industrial activity in coastal areas has created preconditions for coastalisation ...— the movement of people and socio-economic activity to marine coasts. To date, coastal areas have a higher rate of economic development, fostering migration and an influx of capital across the globe. Scholars and policymakers voice concerns about the asymmetry of regional development and the increasing anthropogenic impact on the coastal ecosystem. It reinforces the importance of coastal zone management. In this study, we use an example of the Baltic region to identify the coastalisation patterns in the Baltic region and answer the question, whether there can be a single definition of the coastal zone of the Baltic region. According to a broad definition, the Baltic macro-region is nearly all coastal and, consequently, all settlements are influenced by the coastalisation effect. We have studied the urban population dynamics in 128 cities of 45 coastal regions through the lens of various characteristics of a coastal city — the distance from the sea (10, 50, 100, and 150 km), location in a coastal region (NUTS 2), availability of a port and its primary maritime activity (tankers, cargo, fishing, passenger, recreational vessels and others). The research results suggest that despite the strong coherence of the Baltic region countries, there should not be a single delimitation approach to defining the coastal zone. Overall, the most active marine economic processes occur in the zone up to 10 km from the seacoast and 30 km from ports and port infrastructure. However, in the case of Sweden, Poland, and Latvia, the coastal zone can be extended to 50 km, and in Germany — up to 150 km inland.
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