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A.
B. Rakhmanov
73
TOURISM
International tourism is playing an
increasingly important part in the life of all
the nine countries of the Baltic region. In this
contribution, I analyse the statistical data for
2010—2017 regarding the numbers of arri-
vals of international tourists and internation-
al tourism revenues in the Baltic region. Re-
gional metropolises, which include nine capi-
tals and Saint Petersburg, have a pivotal role
in the tourism space of the region. I propose
a methodology for empirical research into
the attractiveness of ten Baltic cities as per-
ceived by international tourists. This meth-
odology distinguishes three major compo-
nents in the tourism industry of the Baltic
metropolises: hotels, restaurants, and sights.
I estimate the attractiveness of these tourism
infrastructure components in each of the ten
cities using special indicators. Based on the
data obtained, I calculate the integrated indi-
cator of city attractiveness. The empirical
study shows that, in the Baltic region, inter-
national tourists appreciate the most the ho-
tels of Berlin, Warsaw, and Copenhagen, the
restaurants of Tallinn, Riga, and Copenha-
gen, and the sights of Berlin, Stockholm, and
Saint Petersburg. The most attractive Baltic
cities for international tourists are Berlin,
Copenhagen, and Stockholm. Although the
sights of Moscow and Saint Petersburg are
competitive in the tourist space of the Baltic
region, Moscow and Saint Petersburg hotels
and restaurants are noticeably inferior to
those in other countries of the region.
Keywords: tourism, structure of attrac-
tiveness, metropolis, TripAdvisor, hotel, res-
taurant, sights, sociology of city, Baltic region
Introduction.
Tourism as a Social Phenomenon
and Its Study
Tourism has become one of the most
important attributes of modern life.
Travels of individuals for the purpose of
TOURISM
AND THE STRUCTURE
OF ATTRACTIVENESS
OF THE BALTIC REGION
METROPOLISES
A
.
B. Rakhmanov
1
B
altiс Region. 2019. Vol. 11, № 2. Р. 73—93.
¹ Lomonosov Moscow State University,
1 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991
Russia.
Submitted on December 30, 2018
doi: 10.5922/2079-8555-2019-2-5
© Rakhmanov A. B., 2019
Tourism
74
gaining knowledge, recreation, entertainment, as well as for business
purposes are known from Antiquity. I. Kant [1, p. 352] and G.
W.
F. He-
gel [2, p. 56; 3, p. 458] reflected on various aspects of tourism.
What is tourism? In 1995, the United Nations World Tourism Organ-
ization (UNWTO) defined the concept of ‘tourism’ quite broadly as ‘the
activities of people traveling and staying outside their normal environ-
ment for a period of not more than one year to spend free time, do busi-
ness and for other purposes’
1
. American scientist C. Goeldner and Cana-
dian researcher J. Brent-Ritchie wrote, “When we think of tourism, we
think primarily of people who are visiting a particular place for sightsee-
ing, visiting friends and relatives, taking a vacation, and having a good
time. They might spend their leisure time engaging in various sports,
sunbathing, talking, singing, taking rides, touring, reading, or simply en-
joying the environment. If we consider the subject further, we may in-
clude in our definition of tourism people who are participating in a con-
vention, a business conference, or some other kind of business or profes-
sional activity, as well as those who are taking a study tour under an ex-
pert guide or doing some kind of scientific research or study” [4, p. 3].
So, international tourism is a short visit to other countries for the purpose
of recreation, getting acquainted with the natural and cultural and histori-
cal sights of these countries, customs and mores of different nations, their
national cuisine, various kinds of entertainment, shopping, and also for
the purpose of receiving education, scientific research, attending profes-
sional and business meetings, commercial activities, treatment, religious
pilgrimages, etc. Tourism does not include travel for the purpose of tem-
porary employment.
In the modern era tourism performs three functions: first, it contrib-
utes to the balanced and harmonious development of a person as an indi-
vidual, supplying them not only with recreation opportunities, but also
opening new horizons of nature and society, history and today’s world, as
well as contributing to the development of world cultural heritage; sec-
ondly, by offering specific goods and services, it forms a special branch
of the national and global economy, a profit-oriented business, and final-
ly, thirdly, it is a means of perception by the individual of themselves, as
an integral part of the emerging united humanity and thus contributes to
the formation of a global society, serving as one of the most important
types of migrations of people within and outside of their countries. Tour-
ism has acquired the latter function only recently: at the beginning of the
XXI century, tourist routes have contributed to the creation of the actual
unity of the world.
1 Collection of Tourism Expenditure Statistics. World Tourism Organization.
P. 1. URL: http://pub.unwto.org/WebRoot/Store/Shops/Infoshop/Products/1034/
1034—1.pdf (access date: 12.12.2018).
A.
B. Rakhmanov
75
Various aspects of the transformation of tourism into a mass phenom-
enon of the current world are discussed in the scientific literature world-
wide. One can speak of the emergence of a special interdisciplinary field
of knowledge, which English-speaking researchers brand under the name
of tourism studies. In particular, I would point out two authors who con-
sidered tourism as a social phenomenon.
Back in 1984, the Israeli scholar E. Cohen proposed eight sociologi-
cal approaches to understanding tourism as: 1) commercialized hospitali-
ty (commercialization and industrialization of traditional relationships
that have long since connected the guest / wanderer and their host);
2) democratized journey (travels that were previously available only to
the members of aristocracy and the rich were made possible for many); 3)
modern leisure activity; 4) modern version of pilgrimage; 5) implementa-
tion of basic cultural orientations characteristic of people from different
countries; 6) process of acculturation (tourists have a diverse impact on
the host countries); 7) a sort of inter-ethnic relations (tourists and the host
countries are representatives of different ethnic groups); 8) a form of neo-
colonialism (metropolitan countries produce tourist flows, while periph-
eral countries accept them) [5, p. 373—376].
The works of the prominent British social theorist J. Urry are classic
for the study of tourism. When analyzing tourism, he considered the con-
cept of tourist gaze — a socially organized and systematic view of the
one who seeks to extract pleasure from travelling — as key. Tourism acts
as the embodiment and phenomenology of such a gaze [6, р. 2—3]. Urry
and Larsen believed that mass tourism first appeared in the north of Great
Britain in the second half of the 19th century, and was associated with the
leisure of the industrial working class [7, р. 31—36]. For Urry, who
viewed society as a system of mobilities, tourism was one of the most
important forms of mobility [8, p. 67—70].
Baltic region scholars have made substantial contributions to the
study of tourism in this part of the world.
The attractiveness of Russian regions for international tourists is be-
ing studied [9]. Special attention is paid to the specifics of tourism in the
border regions on the example of Kaliningrad, Smolensk, Pskov and
Amur regions, the Republic of Karelia [10—12], prospects for the devel-
opment of cross-border tourism over the southern coast of the Baltic Sea
[13], and prospects for tourism in different parts of the German coast of
the Baltic Sea [14].
The paper of L. Matoga (on the example of Nowa Huta, one of the
districts of Krakow) [15] is devoted to studying the preferences of tour-
ists. K. Jakosuo studied the attractiveness of the hospitality industry and
attractions of Finnish Karelia for tourists from Russia [16].
Estonian researchers A. Kuusik, K. Nilbe, T. Mehine and R. Ahas con-
ducted a study of the Estonian tourism market on the basis of empirical
data on the positioning of mobile phones, considering the ways in which
Tourism
76
the nature of events (music festivals, sports events, fairs, exhibitions, scien-
tific conferences, etc.) within the country, together with their regularity, are
capable of causing repeated visits by international tourists [17].
The author of this paper, based on the statistics of restaurants in the
capitals of the Baltic region, analysed the hierarchy of national cuisines
in these countries in the context of the global culinary space [18]. The
purpose of the present study is to analyse the attractiveness of the Baltic
region to international tourists. This is needed to clarify the range of op-
portunities for the revitalization of the tourism industry in these coun-
tries. In particular, we, of course, are interested in assessing the tourist
attractiveness of Russia. To reach this goal, we first consider the relative
numbers of international tourists globally and in the Baltic region.
International tourism in the world and in the Baltic Region
We can estimate the growth of international tourism in the world
from statistics. According to the UNWTO, in 1950 there were 25 million
international tourists in the world, 674 million in 2000, and 1.323 billion
in 2017
2
. By 2030, their number will reach 1.8 billion people
3
. The tour-
ism industry is among the leading sectors of the global economy. In the
tourism industry, 10
% of world gross domestic product is produced, 7
%
of world exports are formed, and one in ten jobs is created in the global
economy
4
. A global tourist space arises as a result of the tourist flow
growth, within which hundreds of millions of people cross the borders of
their own and foreign countries every year, and separate nations, coun-
tries and continents are sewn together with the threads of tourist routes.
The most important indicator of the international tourism develop-
ment in a particular country is the number of international tourist arrivals.
Thus, in 2017, the top ten countries of the world included France, Spain,
the USA, China, Italy, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany
and Thailand. One may characterize the first five countries as the great
tourist powers (by international tourist arrivals). Another important indi-
cator of international tourism is the revenues it generates. In terms of in-
ternational tourism revenues in 2017, the top ten countries in the world
included the USA, Spain, France, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Italy,
Australia, Germany, Macau, and Japan. Let us name the first five the
great tourist powers (by income from international tourism). Due to the
2 UNWTO. Tourism Highlights. 2017 Edition. Р. 2. URL: https://www.e-unwto.
org/doi/book/ 10.18111/9789284419029 (access date: 13.12.2018); UNWTO.
Tourism Highlights. 2018 Edition. Р. 5. URL: https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/
book/10.18111/9789284419876 (access date: 15.12.2018).
3 UNWTO. Tourism Highlights. 2017 Edition. P. 3. URL: https://www.e-
unwto.org/doi/book/ 10.18111/9789284419029 (access date: 13.12.2018).
4 UNWTO. Tourism Highlights. 2018 Edition. P. 3. URL: https://www.e-unwto.
org/doi/book/ 10.18111/9789284419876 (access date: 15.12.2018).
A.
B. Rakhmanov
77
fact that France, Spain and the United States are among the five great
tourist powers both in terms of the number of tourists received and in
terms of tourism revenues, we qualify them as three tourist superpowers.
What is the degree of international tourism development in the Baltic
countries? In order to assess its scale in the region, let us turn to the analy-
sis of UNWTO statistics related to the recent period of time (the most re-
cent data as of 2017). We consider the number of international tourists re-
ceived and total revenues from international tourism in the Baltic Sea
countries. In addition, we introduce another indicator of the international
tourism development, namely, the indicator of international tourism densi-
ty, equal to the ratio of the number of international tourist arrivals to the
country's population in a certain year. This indicator will show the place
the international tourism takes in the public life of a country. In order to
carry out a comparative analysis, we present the data relating not only to
the countries of the Baltic region, but also to the world as a whole, as well
as to the great tourist powers by international tourist arrivals (Table 1). The
countries are ranked by number of international tourist arrivals in 2017.
Table 1
International tourist arrivals and international tourism density
by country of destination, 2010—2017
Country
International tourists arrivals Population
in 2017 (mil-
lion)
International
tourism density
indicator
2010
(million)
2017
(million)
Change
(%)
World 952 1323 38.97 7,750262 0.17
France 77,648 86,918 11.94 64,980 1.34
Spain 52,677 81786 55.26 46,354 1.76
USA 60,010 75,868 26.43 324,459 0.23
Chin
a
55,665 60,740 9.12 1409,517 0.04
Italy 43,626 58,253 33.53 59,360 0.98
Countries of the Baltic region
Germany 26,875 37,452 39.36 82.114 0.46
Russi
a
22,281 24,390 9.47 143,990 0.17
Poland 12,470 18,400 47.55 38,171 0.48
Denmark 8,744 10,781* 23.30 5,734 1.88
Sweden 4,951 6,865 38.66 9,911 0.69
Estoni
a
2,511 3,245 29.23 1,310 2.45
Finland 2,319 3,181 37.17 5,523 0.58
Lithuani
a
1,507 2,523 67.42 2,890 0.87
Latvi
a
1.373 1,950 42.02 1,950 1.00
* Data for 2016.
Complied and calculated by the author from: UNWTO. Tourism Highlights.
2018 Edition. P. 5, 15—17. URL: https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/book/10.18111/
9789284419876 (accessed: 15.12.2018).
Tourism
78
All countries of the Baltic region, except Germany being among the
top ten tourist countries of the world, are significantly inferior in terms
of international tourist reception to the indicators of great tourist pow-
ers. Germany is the undisputed leader of the Baltic region in this re-
spect, and Russia and Poland, which occupy the second and third plac-
es, respectively, are far behind. We can also see that in 1999—2001,
2006, and 2012—2015, Russia was among the ten leading tourist pow-
ers in the world in terms of tourist arrivals, but in recent years it
dropped out of this top ten. Russia's lag could be caused by the political
complications surrounding the country’s international relations. Table 1
shows that a relatively large number of international tourists visited Es-
tonia, which outperformed Finland.
Almost all countries of the Baltic region showed a significant in-
crease in the reception of international tourists in the period from 2010 to
2017. Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as Spain, exceeded
the average growth rate in the number of international tourists. The mod-
est growth rate of reception of international tourists in Russia is close to
that of France or China.
The values of the international tourism density indicator are quite im-
portant, too, since they show the degree of the influx of large masses of
tourists as a systemic factor in the development of a given society. They
also demonstrate the extent to which the presence of a large number of
multilingual and multicultural tourists in the territory of a given country
affects all spheres of its public life — from economy to everyday life. Let
us assume that if the indicator value is equal to or greater than 1, that is,
the number of received international tourists is equal to or exceeds the
number of local residents, then we speak of a tourism society, that is, of a
society for which the reception of international tourists is very important.
A tourism society is a society formed by the autochthonous population
and the permanent presence of a significant number of international tour-
ists at the same time. Tourism societies that emerge in our era are obvi-
ously a product of globalization.
We see that the tourism society exists in Estonia (2.45), Denmark
(1.88) and Latvia (1.00). By the indicator of the international tourism
density, the first two countries surpass Spain (1.76) and France (1.34),
which we described above as tourist superpowers. Italy is approaching
the status of a tourism society (0.98). So, we have reasons to believe that
in the social and cultural (but, of course, not legal) respect, Estonia is no
longer a country of Estonians, but a country of Estonians and internation-
al tourists, and Denmark is not a country of Danes, but a country of
Danes and international tourists. A similar characterization may be given
to Spain and France, and to Latvia and Italy to a lesser extent. At the
same time, Germany, Russia, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Lithuania, as
well as the USA and China are still the countries of their citizens. Ac-
A.
B. Rakhmanov
79
cording to the indicator of the international tourism density, Russia, while
occupying the last place in the Baltic region, is at the same level as the
world average.
Let us consider the data on international tourism revenues in the
world, the great tourist powers by international tourism revenues and the
countries of the Baltic region in 2010—2017 (Table 2). The countries are
ranked by international tourism revenues in 2017.
Table 2
International tourism revenues by country of destination, 2010—2017
Country 2010 (US$ billion) 2017 (US$ billion) Change (%)
World 927 1340 44.55
The great tourist powers
USA 137,010 210,747 53,82
Spain 54,641 67,964 24,38
France 57,059 60,681 6.35
Thailand 20,104 57,477 18,590
United Kingdo
m
33,978 51,211 50.72
Countries of the Baltic region
Germany 34,679 39,823 14.83
Sweden 8,366 14,142 69.04
Poland 9,576 12,772 33.38
Russia 8,830 8,945 1.30
Denmark 5,853 7,394 26.33
Finland 3,051 2,982 -2.3
Estonia 1,073 1,628 51.72
Luthuani
a
0,967 1,299 34.33
Latvi
a
0,642 0,885 37.85
Complied and calculated by the author from: UNWTO. Tourism Highlights.
2018 Edition. Р. 7, 15—17. URL: https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/book/10.18111/
9789284419876 (accessed: 15.12.2018).
Germany is the absolute leader in revenues from international tourism
among the countries of the Baltic region. Its indicators are comparable to
those of great tourist powers. With a huge margin, Germany is followed
by Sweden and Poland. Russia and Denmark occupy middle positions,
ahead of small tourist markets: Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
Sweden and Estonia lead in terms of growth in revenues from interna-
tional tourism in the Baltic region, and their figures are higher than the
world average, while being comparable to those of the United States and
United Kingdom. The titleholder among the great tourist powers, and
perhaps in the world as a whole, is Thailand. Russia showed a barely no-
ticeable increase in revenues from international tourism (within the statis-
tical error), while the figures actually fell to a degree in Finland.
Tourism
80
Based on the data on the number of international tourist arrivals and
international tourism revenues, we are able to calculate the amount that
an average international tourist would bring globally, to the five great
tourist powers (by the number of international tourist arrivals) and to the
countries of the Baltic region in 2010—2017 (Table 3).
Table 3
The average international tourism revenues by country of destination,
2010—2017
Country 2010 (US$) 2017 (US$) Change (%)
World 973.74 1012.85 4.02
The great tourist powers
France 734.84 698.14 – 4.99
USA 2283.11 2727.13* 19.45
Spain 1037.28 831.00 – 19.89
China 823.03 536.99 – 34.75
Italy 889.06 759.33 – 4.59
Countries of the Baltic region
Germany 1290.38 1063.31 – 17.60
Sweden 1689.76 2060.01 21.91
Finland 1315.65 937.44 – 28.75
Denmark 669.37 653.65* – 2.35
Poland 767.92 694.13 – 9.61
Lithuania 641.67 514.86 – 19.76
Estonia 427.32 501.69 17.40
Latvia 467.59 453.85 – 2.94
Russia 396.30 366.75 – 7.46
* Data for 2016.
Calculated by the author from: UNWTO. Tourism Highlights. 2018 Edition.
P. 5—7. 15—17. URL: https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/book/10.18111/9789284
419876 (accessed: 15.12.2018).
We see that an average international tourist in the Baltic region gen-
erates the most money for Sweden. Germany ranked second (close to the
world average), and Finland came third. But the three Baltic countries are
very far behind the United States. The average international tourist gave
the least money to Russia, and the figures for Latvia, Estonia and Lithua-
nia are also low. In all likelihood, this is due to the low cost services of
the tourism industry in these countries.
It is noteworthy that from 2010 to 2017, the most countries of the
Baltic region (except for Sweden and Estonia) suffered a drop in the
A.
B. Rakhmanov
81
amount of revenues generated by the average tourist. The same thing
happened among the great tourist powers, and the USA became an excep-
tion. At the same time, revenues from international tourism in the world
as a whole, grew, albeit slowly.
Thus, in the course of the statistical analysis of the international tour-
ism development in the Baltic region in 2010—2017, we identified four
key indicators: 1) the number of international tourist arrivals, 2) the reve-
nues generated by international tourism, 3) the density of international
tourism and 4) the revenues generated by an average international tourist.
The leader of the Baltic region is Germany by the first two indicators,
Denmark by the third one, Sweden by the fourth one. Therefore, these
three countries can be considered centers of tourism in the region.
The attractiveness
of the Baltic Region’s metropolises and its structure:
Methodology of empirical research
International tourism considerably, and sometimes primarily involves
international tourists visiting major cities in the host countries. These cit-
ies are either the purpose of tourism, or tourist hubs, that is, hub stations
in the network of tourist routes. In the latter case, even if a tourist visits
the country, for example, intending to enjoy the views of its wildlife or
the pleasures of recreation in small resort towns, to contemplate the his-
torical and cultural sights far from major cities, they are bound to travel
through megacities, which is accompanied by staying in hotels, going to
restaurants, consuming tourist services, visiting sights, etc. Thus, large
cities become the centers of the tourism industry and carriers of the re-
spective infrastructure, and act as centers of production and consumption
of tourism services, centers of tourism as a social phenomenon. In this
regard, the above task of studying the attractiveness of the Baltic region
countries in the perception of international tourists is detailed as the task
of studying the tourist attractiveness of the megacities in the region.
In all 9 countries of the Baltic region, the largest cities are their capi-
tals: Moscow, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Helsinki, Tal-
linn, Riga and Vilnius, which attract a significant or, in most cases, the
largest proportion of international tourists visiting these countries. The
metropolis, which has the informal status of the second capital of Russia,
St. Petersburg, is also of great importance. Thus, the focus of our atten-
tion will be 10 capitals of the Baltic region.
The tourism potential of the capital cities of the Baltic region may be
viewed from an objective point of view, with analyzing such characteris-
tics as population, urban GDP, average income per capita, standards of
living, average life expectancy, number and star rating of hotels, number
of restaurants, prices for goods and services, environmental situation,
Tourism
82
crime rate, traffic jams, etc. All these objective characteristics contribute
to the formation of the attractiveness of these megacities for international
tourists.
However, studying the subjective side of the tourist potential of the
capital cities of the Baltic region is also is of great interest, that is, how
attractive they look in the eyes of international tourists. Let us character-
ize this subjective side as the attractiveness of a city and attempt to quan-
tify it on the basis of objective data, that is, transform it into a subjective-
objective category. How can we do this, that is, how do we objectively
calculate the attractiveness of the megacities of the Baltic region in the
perception of international tourists?
To study the attractiveness of the capital cities of the Baltic region,
we apply the original author's methodology. It assumes the use of infor-
mation provided by the world's largest travel portal TripAdvisor. com as
an empirical database
5
. It was created in the early 2000s and gained the
widest fame worldwide in a short time, becoming a companion and con-
sultant to tourists from all countries of the world. This website contains
data on the tourist infrastructure of almost all cities in the world, namely,
on the three main types of tourist sites — hotels, restaurants and attrac-
tions, as well as reviews of tourists about them. In addition to the more or
less detailed text message, each review implies an assessment of the said
tourist infrastructure objects on a 5-point scale, including the options
“excellent”, “very good”, “average”, “poor” and “terrible”.
It is beyond argument that the attractiveness is a subjective category,
but when it comes to analyzing the feedback from large masses of people
who evaluate the various components of the tourist infrastructure of cities
(oftentimes constituting hundreds and even thousands of reviews on the
same site), then we bring quite objective grounds for this subjective cate-
gory. This creates the possibility of an impartial, sober and objective as-
sessment of the attractiveness of the main components of the tourist in-
frastructure of the megalopolises in the Baltic region.
We can throw off the possible concerns that many positive reviews on
TripAdvisor. com are inspired by the PR and marketing departments of
the respective institutions, pointing out that, firstly, the reviews are writ-
ten in many different languages, secondly, there is a fair amount of “bad”
and “terrible” reviews in a number of cases; thirdly, the TripAdvisor.
com administration has an effective policy for removing unfair reviews.
Among the countless reviews left on TripAdvisor. com, we select on-
ly those that were left by international tourists from all over the world,
who visited the capital cities of the Baltic region, and not the citizens of
these countries, who evaluate their capitals, that is, we exclude the sub-
jects of domestic tourism. TripAdvisor. com allows you to classify re-
5 TripAdvisor. Latest reviews. Lowest prices. URL: https://www.tripadvisor.
com/ (access date: 16.12.2018).
A.
B. Rakhmanov
83
views by linguistic criteria. We will take only those reviews that were
posted in English, which is not a state or official in any country in the
Baltic region, into account. Of course, the reviews in English, which has
long acquired the status of a global language, a language of world com-
munication, are posted by tourists from all over the world, and not just by
the guests from English-speaking countries. This will allow us to select
reviews that were made specifically by international tourists with a high
level of confidence, including, of course, tourists from the Baltic region
who came from a country other than the one in which the metropolitan
city is located. Say that, for example, Swedes, Poles, Brazilians or Chi-
nese who write reviews of the city’s hotels on TripAdvisor. com in Eng-
lish serve as international tourists in St. Petersburg. At the same time, we
digress from the analysis of the fact that, probably, some of the reviews
in English were written by citizens of the Baltic region countries who
evaluate the objects of the national tourism industry of their own coun-
tries. Most likely, there are very few of them, and therefore, we will still
assume that all the reviews in English were left by international tourists
to simplify our analysis.
The data from the TripAdvisor. com portal has come into use in
world tourism research fairly recently — since the beginning of the
2010s. The scientists who are working in this direction are mainly for-
eign. The issue of the credibility of the reviews of tourist sites that are
posted on this site is addressed in the works of British scholars I. Jickle
and K. Carter [19], R. Filieri [20]. Hong Kong researchers H. Lee, R. Lo
and J. Murphy [21] analyze the community of TripAdvisor. com users
(sociodemographic features, behavioral patterns, etc.). Hong Kong au-
thors J. Ei, N. Ou and R. Lo consider the impact of TripAdvisor. com da-
ta on planning trips by tourists from different countries [22]. A researcher
from the USA, L. Vazquez, focuses on the study of negative reviews
posted on this portal [23]. Indian scholars P. Bhardwai, S. Gautam and
P. Pahwa analyzed the emotions that Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and oth-
er metropolitan areas of India caused in tourists relying on the reviews of
TripAdvisor. com visitors [24]. Chinese authors H. Zhang, J. Pu,
C. Wang and H. Chen offer a model for analyzing restaurant reviews
posted on TripAdvisor. com to independent tourists [25]. A Croatian re-
searcher, H. Jakopovic studied the perception of the work of restaurants
in the city of Dubrovnik by tourists based on TripAdvisor. com data [26].
A joint study by Australian and Malaysian researchers A. Akhani, M. Ni-
lashi, O. Ibrahim, L. Sanzoni and S. Weaven is dedicated to the princi-
ples of segmentation of the market of consumers of medical and hotel
services (spa hotels) based on reviews posted on TripAdvisor. com [27].
The originality of the empirical study of the attractiveness of the capi-
tal cities in the Baltic region, proposed in this article, lies in the specifici-
ty of the analysis of reviews posted by international tourists on TripAdvi-
sor. com, and this study applies to all countries in the region. First of all,
Tourism
84
we produce a quantitative description of the attractiveness of hotels, res-
taurants and attractions separately. The quantitative expression of the at-
tractiveness of every component of the tourist infrastructure of cities is
the average number of reviews with “excellent” rating received by each
site of the corresponding type in the city, selected in the sample of the top
30 — according to reviews on TripAdvisor. com
6
— that is, the arithme-
tic average of 30 best hotels, 30 best restaurants and 30 best attractions.
Then we take the values obtained as indicators of the attractiveness of
hotels, restaurants and sights of the Baltic metropolitan areas (in points).
Further, based on the results of the above statistical analysis, we calculate
the values of the indicator of integral attractiveness of 10 capital cities of
the Baltic region using the formula of
3
AA1·A2·A3,
where A1 — indi-
cator of attractiveness of hotels, A2 — indicator of attractiveness of res-
taurants and A3 — indicator of attractiveness of sights, that is, taking the
indicator of integral attractiveness equal to the cubic root of the product
of the values of three private indicators of attractiveness.
Two important reservations should be made. First, when analyzing
the attractiveness of large cities in the Baltic region, we proceed from an
important epistemological premise — the assumption that this region
(and the world) has an isomorphic tourist space, within which tourist
flows circulate with an equal intensity and degree of successful overcom-
ing of various obstacles (legal, financial, political, etc.). In fact, this is an
idealization, and without doubt, the actual situation looks somewhat more
complicated. For example, the deterioration of international relations in
recent years has led to a reduction in the influx of international tourists to
Russia. Still, it seems that this assumption is quite legitimate as it does
not contain excessive error, and it is necessary to accept this premise to
carry out our research. Secondly, in such a study, we deflect our attention
from taking into account relatively minor factors that form or destroy the
charm of the major cities in the Baltic region: the environmental situa-
tion, the state of the transport system, traffic jams, crime rates, etc. We
are not aware of the sources that allow assessing the perception of these
issues of major cities in the Baltic region by international tourists. In the
opinion of the author, the content of these two reservations does not af-
fect the effectiveness of the study significantly.
The attractiveness of the Baltic Region hotels
The attractiveness of a hotel in the eyes of its customers is determined
by a number of factors: location, room and other facilities’ characteris-
tics, price, service, quality of food offered by hotel restaurants, hospitali-
6 TripAdvisor.com allows to rank hotels, restaurants and sights of cities depend-
ing on the ratings given to them by consumers of their services and spectators.
A.
B. Rakhmanov
85
ty, atmosphere, etc. Let us calculate the values of the attractiveness indi-
cator of hotels in 10 megacities of the Baltic region. They are ranked by
the indicator of the attractiveness of hotels in the perception of interna-
tional tourists (Table 4).
Table 4
The indicator of the attractiveness of Baltic region hotels
City The indicator of the attractiveness of hotels, points
Berlin 827
Warsaw 462
Copenhagen 442
Stockholm 392
Tallinn 368
Helsinki 357
Moscow 302
Saint Petersburg 229
Riga 220
Vilnius 191
Calculated by the author from the data for December 15th 2018.
The study showed that Berlin is the most attractive city of all coun-
tries of the Baltic region in the eyes of international tourists. Berlin hotels
are the best in the Baltic region. Berlin leads with a colossal margin, way
ahead of Warsaw and Copenhagen, which have risen to second and third
positions. The second place in the hotel service is occupied by the Polish
capital, which surpassed almost all the capitals of the Baltic region,
which is came as a surprise. Tallinn rounds out the top five, ahead of half
the megacities of the Baltic region. Moscow and St. Petersburg entered
only the second half of the rating — the benefits of the hospitality indus-
try provided by the hotels of the two Russian capitals are rated by inter-
national tourists lower than those offered by hotels in many other Baltic
capitals.
The attractiveness of the Baltic Region restaurants
The attractiveness of a restaurant is determined by the quality of the
food offered, price, quality of service, training and amiable disposition of
staff, location, atmosphere, etc. We calculate the values of the indicator
of the attractiveness of restaurants in 10 capitals of the Baltic region.
Megacities are ranked by the indicator of the attractiveness of restaurants
in the perception of international tourists (Table 5).
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86
Table 5
The indicator of attractiveness of the Baltic Region restaurants
City The indicator of attractiveness of restaurants,
Points
Tallinn 360
Riga 247
Copenhagen 209
Berlin 187
Vilnius 184
Warsaw 153
Stockholm 147
Helsinki 131
Saint Petersburg 49
Moscow 28
Calculated by the author from the data for December 16th 2018.
The take-off of Tallinn’s restaurants to the first place in the Baltic re-
gion is sensational. The superiority of Estonian capital over other Baltic
metropolitan areas in the perception of international tourists, according to
our research, is indisputable. Other major cities in the Baltic region lag
far behind the capital of Estonia by the attractiveness of restaurants. We
might put forward the assumption that the success of Tallinn is due to the
combination of high quality food, service culture and relatively low pric-
es of restaurants in the Estonian capital as a working hypothesis. The res-
taurants of St. Petersburg and Moscow gave way to their counterparts
from all the Baltic cities, and their lag even from the restaurants of Hel-
sinki, located on the 7th place, is very significant.
The hierarchy of the attractiveness of restaurants in megacities in the
Baltic region, established in Table 5, is most likely due to the ratio of lo-
cal (Estonian, Latvian, Danish, Russian, etc.) and the world's great (Ital-
ian, Japanese, American, etc.) cuisines, and other characteristics: food
quality, service, prices, etc. In other words, in the restaurants of megaci-
ties of the Baltic region, international tourists are mostly attracted not by
the national and culinary genesis of food, but by the level of operation of
these institutions. The culinary tradition of the country to which the food
belongs is not as important as how skillfully it was cooked, how tasty,
cheap, cordially and hospitably it was served, in what atmosphere the act
of its consumption was carried out. In a global society, of which the Bal-
tic region is an integral part, both gastronomic tastes and service canons
are being globalized.
A.
B. Rakhmanov
87
The attractiveness of the Baltic Region sights
An exceptional role in attracting tourists is played by the sights of
megacities. The distinguished German philosopher A. Schopenhauer not-
ed the peculiarities of the sightseeing of cities by international tourists,
namely the freshness of their gaze, quite accurately. Describing the pecu-
liarities of contemplation of the pure subject of knowledge in his work
“The World as Will and Representation”, he writes: “Further, since the
novelty and the complete lack of knowledge of objects favors their un-
selfish, purely objective perception, this also explains that a foreigner or
an ordinary tourist is impressed with the objects considered by them as
picturesque or poetic, that are not capable of exerting a similar action on
original residents; for example, an entirely unfamiliar city often produces
a surprisingly pleasant impression on other people, and it fails to do so
with its permanent residents, for this impression has its source in that the
traveler, not having any relation to this city and its inhabitants, contem-
plates it quite objectively. That is part of the pleasure that travel is con-
nected with” [28, p. 310]. The significance of the sights of a city is two-
fold: on the one hand, acquaintance with them, their contemplation en-
riches the personality of a tourist, and they give impetus to the develop-
ment of the tourism industry on the other. Contemplation of the sights is
often not worth even a euro cent or a penny for tourists, but cause at-
tendant expenses while attracting tourists — purchase of the services of
travel companies, guides, hotels, restaurants, etc. The exceptions are mu-
seums and other similar objects, the visit to which is usually paid.
TripAdvisor. com identifies objects of all types that may be of inter-
est to tourists: architectural structures (unique historical and modern
buildings, temples, fortresses, monasteries, etc.), monuments, sculptures,
museums, art galleries, exhibitions, theaters, urban complexes (historical
centers of cities, squares, public gardens, streets, fountains, etc.), urban
and natural complexes (parks, zoos, water parks, embankments, etc.), ob-
servation platforms, economic objects of cultural interest (ports, markets,
etc.), transport systems (stations, subways, canals, etc.), stadiums, ceme-
teries, etc. In the TripAdvisor. com classification, all of them are covered
by two subject headings: 1) architectural, sculptural and town-planning
sights
in the broadest sense of these words
7
and 2) museums. Let us cal-
7 In the original version, the expression “Sights&Landmarks” is used, and in the
Russian version — “Landmarks and cultural objects”. This refers to all of the
above urban attractions, with the exception of museums, which are displayed in
a separate section (“Museums”). In some cases, the same object appears twice in
these two rubrics on TripAdvisor. com, but with the same set of tourist reviews.
We are referring to the cases where a museum is located in a unique building, in
which case this object is taken into account both as an architectural structure and
Tourism
88
culate the arithmetic average of the indicators of attractiveness of the 30
most highly rated tourist sites falling under each of these two headings
and determine the resulting value as an indicator of the attractiveness of
the city’s sights. In addition, we identify the number of sights of the Bal-
tic region megacities under consideration, which have received over 1000
reviews from international tourists with an “excellent” rating. We sum-
marize the data obtained (Table 6). The cities are ranked according to the
indicator of attractiveness. It is calculated by the author according to the
data as of December 16, 2018.
Table 6
The indicator of attractiveness of Baltic region sights
City
The indicator of attractive-
ness
of sights, points
The number of sights that re-
ceived
more than 1000 reviews “excel-
lent”
Berlin 1173 13
Stockhol
m
560 7
Saint Petersburg 534 6
Copenhagen 437 9
Moscow 360 5
Warsaw 292 5
Tallinn 222 2
Helsinki 183 2
Rig
a
137 1
Vilnius 118 1
Calculated by the author from the data for December 16th 2018.
Among all the megacities of the Baltic region, international tourists are
most interested in the sights, memorials and museums in Berlin. In this re-
spect, the capital of Germany is far ahead of Stockholm. St. Petersburg and
Moscow took the third and fifth positions respectively, and the backlog of
St. Petersburg from Stockholm is insignificant. The Danish capital unex-
pectedly surpassed the capital of Russia in the eyes of international tour-
ists. Riga and Vilnius round out the top ten megacities of the Baltic region
in this rating, as in the case with the hotel attractiveness rating.
It is quite logical that Berlin it turned out to have the largest number
of attractions and memorial places, which received over 1000 “excellent”
reviews. Copenhagen is second, and Stockholm third. Thus, Copenhagen
as a set of exhibits. For example, St. Isaac's Cathedral, which is an architectural
masterpiece that is admired from the outside, the streets of St. Petersburg, and a
museum at the same time, that is, a collection of exhibits that are contemplated
while inside the building of the cathedral. In such cases, each object was includ-
ed in the analysis just once.
A.
B. Rakhmanov
89
is inferior to Stockholm and St. Petersburg by the general attractiveness
of the sights, and the Danish capital is ahead of the Swedish and northern
capital of Russia in the number of sight-seeing masterpieces (in the per-
ception of international tourists). Here, Moscow is in fifth place.
Let us list the sights of the megalopolises of the Baltic region, which
attracted the greatest interest among international tourists. We mean at-
tractions that have received over 3000 reviews rated “excellent”. This list
includes (we list the cities according to the number of sights mentioned
and the number of excellent reviews): Berlin — Holocaust Memorial (10
174 reviews), Brandenburg Gate (10 093), Reichstag (10 067), Topogra-
phy of Terror Museum (6367), Berlin Wall Memorial (4918), Museum of
Pergamon (4438), East Side Gallery (3188); St. Petersburg — the State
Hermitage Museum (8395), the Church of the Savior on Blood (6597),
the Grand Palace in Peterhof (3410); Moscow — Red Square (4348),
Moscow Metro (4133), St. Basil's Cathedral (3366); Stockholm — the
Vasa Museum (12,541), Old Town (5874); Copenhagen — the Nyhavn
port and channel (7550); Tallinn — the Old Town (5058); Warsaw — the
Old Town (3446).
Therefore, the top ten of the most interesting sights and memorial
places in the perception of international tourists of the megacities in the
Baltic region considered (the number of “excellent” reviews from highest
to lowest) looks like this: Vasa Museum (Stockholm), Holocaust Memo-
rial, Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag (all three in Berlin), the State Her-
mitage Museum (St. Petersburg), Nyhavn (Copenhagen), the Church of
the Savior on Blood (St. Petersburg), the Topography of Terror Museum
(Berlin), the Old Town (Stockholm), the Old Town (Tallinn).
Thus, a large number of the most popular tourist attractions among
international tourists turned out to be located in Berlin, but the major at-
traction of the Baltic region is still Stockholm — it is the Vasa Museum,
in which the Swedish Vasa sailing ship is exhibited, built at the begin-
ning of the 17th century and sunken immediately after launching, which
determined its unique preservation. The sights of Moscow and, especial-
ly, St. Petersburg occupy quite decent positions in the tourist area of the
Baltic region. The most outstanding attraction of Russia for international
tourists is the State Hermitage Museum. If we proceed from the pragmat-
ic spirit and language of the tourism industry, it should be emphasized
that the beauty of both Russian capitals have excellent competitiveness in
the Baltic and global tourist markets.
Integral attractiveness of the megacities in the Baltic Region
Based on the indicators of the attractiveness of hotels, restaurants and
sights of the capital cities of the Baltic region, we are able to calculate the
integral attractiveness from the point of view of international tourists us-
ing the above formula (Table 7).
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90
Table 7
The indicator of integral attractiveness of megacities in the Baltic region
City The indicator of integral attractiveness,
Points
Berlin 566
Copenhagen 343
Stockholm 318
Tallinn 309
Warsaw 274
Helsinki 205
Riga 195
Saint Petersburg 182
Vilnius 161
Moscow 145
As a result of the study, we found that the most attractive metropolis
of the Baltic countries in the perception of international tourists is Berlin.
It overcomes other capitals by a colossal margin. The capital of Germany
is made absolute leader by its excellent hotels and outstanding attrac-
tions. The second and third places are occupied by Copenhagen and
Stockholm, respectively. In this regard, these three metropolises should
be qualified as the three tourism capitals in the Baltic region. It was noted
above that Germany, Denmark and Sweden are leaders in international
tourism in the Baltic region. Our study of the attractiveness of the capital
cities in the region suggests that the contribution they make to the poten-
tial attractiveness of these cities is enormous. Tallinn is only slightly be-
hind Copenhagen and Stockholm, and we can confidently characterize
the capital city of Estonia as a tourist subcapital of the Baltic region. Tal-
linn is ahead of both Russian capitals, Warsaw and Helsinki in attractive-
ness for international tourists. The capital of Estonia owes this primarily
to its highly ranked restaurants.
St. Petersburg is of more interest to international tourists than Mos-
cow. Yet, unfortunately, both Moscow and St. Petersburg took modest
positions in the rating of the integral attractiveness of the Baltic metro-
politan areas, which is due to the low attractiveness of their restaurants
and hotels in the eyes of international tourists. Sights of two Russian cap-
itals have a high level of attractiveness in the tourist area of the Baltic
region (and the world).
Conclusion
In this article, the author made an attempt to study the attractiveness
of 10 megacities of 9 countries in the Baltic region in the eyes of interna-
tional tourists using their original method. The results of the study are by
no means definitive and indisputable.
A.
B. Rakhmanov
91
It was found that, in the perception of international tourists, the best
hotels in the Baltic region are located in Berlin, Warsaw and Copenha-
gen, the best restaurants in Tallinn, Riga and Copenhagen, the best sights
in Berlin, Stockholm and St. Petersburg. The most prominent cities of the
region in terms of their integral tourism appeal are Berlin, Copenhagen
and Stockholm, and this triangle forms the heart of international tourism
in the Baltic region. A very remarkable result of our research was that
Tallinn turned out to be the tourist sub-center of the Baltic region, ahead
of many other regional capitals. Based on the results obtained, we have
reason to believe that the three tenets of a practical tourist’s mind in the
Baltic region should be the following: spend the night in Berlin, Warsaw
or Copenhagen, walk around Berlin, Stockholm or St. Petersburg, eat and
drink in Tallinn, Riga or Copenhagen.
The research has shown that, as of today, Moscow and St. Petersburg
occupy relatively modest positions in the tourist area of the Baltic region
in general. International tourists admire the sights of both Russian capi-
tals, yet Moscow and St. Petersburg hotels and restaurants are not as
highly valued. Therefore, in order to strengthen Russia's position on the
Baltic and world tourist maps, to develop the Russian tourism industry, it
is necessary to improve the standards of Moscow and St. Petersburg ho-
tels and restaurants, in addition to further cultivation of the tourist prac-
tices related to landmarks. For this, it would be entirely appropriate to
study the achievements and experience of Russia's neighbours in the
Baltic region, who have achieved remarkable success in the development
of the tourism industry.
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The author
Prof. Azat B. Rakhmanov, the Department of History and Theory of
Sociology, Faculty of Sociology, Lomonosov Moscow State University,
Russia.
E-mail: azrakhmanov@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0550-7906
To cite this article:
Rakhmanov, A.
B. 2019, Tourism and the structure of attractiveness of the
Baltic region metropolises, Balt. reg., Vol. 11, no. 2, p. 73—93. doi: 10.5922/
2079-8555-2019-2-5.
