International Tourism Development Factors in Metropolitan Russian Cities (Example of Moscow and Saint Petersburg)

The research is dedicated to the problem of the development of international tourism in metropolitan Russian cities - Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The paper investigates the theoretical basis of international tourism, the current situation in the Russian touristic market (based on UNWTO Statistics and the Federal Russian data sources). The work also reports the key indices of Russian tourism in the past few decades and provides a panel data analysis on the cause-and-effect relationship between a set of variables and tourism development in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Within the work, the researches of several scientists and economists were explored in order to see which determinants are mostly used to explain the tourism receipts or touristic inflows. Then the data collection and panel data regression analysis were conducted and the most proper regression equation was chosen. The results of the final regression equation showed that in Russian metropolitan cities the most significant impact have economic factors such as CPI and the trade turnover and the quantitative variables related to the touristic services: the number of employees in the sector and the quantity of the available hotel space. The results might be employed in several articles or policy papers in order to continue the research on the topic.