The communication aspect of excursion and tourist routes in the Urals (Early 20th century)

The article examines one of the most widespread categories in the field of tourism — excursion and tourist routes in the Urals, as developed in guidebooks from 1904–1917. Their compilers actively experimented with combined routes that included travel by steamer, steam locomotive, horses, automobile, and on foot — including mountain ascents and descents into caves. Trends emerged both toward the shortening and specialization of routes (by type of attractions) and toward the lengthening of walking segments along the tourists' paths. The routes made it possible to create a Ural "round-the-world" journey, for example, to travel from Perm via Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk to Ufa by rail, and then return to Perm by steamer along the Belaya and Kama rivers — or to undertake many other exciting trips.