ABSTRACT
The nascent market economy in Russia and the development of regional economic linkages based on Russian natural resources is also having an impact on tourism. Tourism is emerging in Northeast Asia as another potential tool for economic development. The size of the regional tourism markets alone makes cross-national tourism linkages a potentially lucrative source of income. Besides supporting growth in the region’s transportation and communications infrastructure, tourism could also play a part in the region’s development simply by making people aware of the Russian Far East (RFE) and what it has to offer. In spite of very low population densities across the RFE, rates of urbanisation are as high as anywhere in Russia. With the opening of its borders and the emergence of a market economy in Russia, there are growing possibilities for Northeast Asia. Many of the major non-Russian ethnic groups form titular nationalities of autonomous oblasts and okrugs in the RFE.
