The Factors of Customer Satisfaction and its Measurement in Russian Hiking Tourism with Utilization of the Best Practices from Austria

In this master's thesis, such a direction of tourism as hiking is investigated. A number of the main existing methods and tools for the analysis of satisfaction in tourism are analyzed. The popularization of a healthy lifestyle, in particular - sports, in conjunction with the presence in Russia of a large number of places suitable for hiking, determine the relevance of the work. The scientific novelty of the thesis lies in the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the infrastructure of mountain hiking in Russia, which was not carried out before. The problem that is being investigated in the work is a bad tourist infrastructure due to the lack of a state development program for this direction. The aim of the work is to develop recommendations for improving the pedestrian infrastructure in the Russian Federation on the basis of the experience of the Austrian Republic. The research method is in-depth interviews with amateurs of mountain hiking (to determine the factors of satisfaction with this activity) and an online survey (for assessing satisfaction with mountain hiking in Russia). To achieve this goal, several tasks were identified: 1) Research on studies on satisfaction in tourism; 2) investigation of the history of development and current level of development of the infrastructure of mountain hiking in the Austrian Republic and in the Russian Federation and their comparison; 3) development of an appropriate method and design of the study; 4) conducting research (in-depth interview and online survey); 5) analysis of results and formulation of recommendations. Recommendations for the development of infrastructure are divided into two blocks (tax and legislation; local management and social) and presented in chapter 3 of the work.