Archaeological Heritage of Steppe Zone as Tourism Development Resource (Case of Orenburg Region)

Recently, it has become obvious that local recreational resources should be utilized. This is connected to the spread of coronavirus which led to the development of local and regional tourism as the only available opportunity to fulfill the recreational needs of people. Tourism companies are forced to search for new types and forms of recreation. Archaeological tourism is one of the types that have been growing in popularity in recent times. In Orenburg oblast, a model steppe region and a birthplace of many ethnicities, both nomadic and settled, archaeologists found over a thousand objects of material archaeological heritage. The archaeological tourism in the region, however, is not widely spread due to, among other things, the insufficient promotion and inefficient positioning of attractions promising for this kind of tourism.

This article deals with the identification and classification of archaeological tourism resources in the steppe zone that led to the mapping of the most promising tourist attractions and the compilation of recommendations on the development of archaeological tourism in the region. The archaeological sites that are the most attractive for archaeological tourism include the Kar-galy mines and the Alandskoye settlement site that belongs to the archaeological group of set-tlements known as the Country of Towns.

One of the recommendations concerning the development strategy for archaeological tourism suggested by the authors is to take into account the desires of the potential tourists from the neighboring Republic of Kazakhstan.