Environmental awareness of youth as a factor in the development of sustainable youth tourism: The example of post-Soviet countries

Federal Research Centre the Subtropical Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yana Fabritsiusa str. 2/28, Sochi, 354002, Russia

^* Corresponding author: Legolas.vk@yandex.ru

Abstract

Currently, the tourism industry is actively involved in solving the problems of climate change and environmental protection. The dependence of many tourist destinations on natural attractions makes the tourism industry responsible for the ecological deterioration of the host territories. In the modern world, favorable conditions have been created for the travel of young people, and therefore youth tourism is a self-sufficient tourism sector. The study proposes to consider the development of youth tourism in terms of sustainability, and hence an analysis of the attitude of the younger generation to the environment during tourist trips was undertaken. A comparative assessment of the negative impact of tourists of different age groups, in particular, young people, on the environment was carried out. Using a sociological survey, the position of young tourists on the issues of careful attitude to natural attractions, and the priority of environmentally friendly tours based on the principles of sustainability was revealed. The young people's degree of understanding of the signs and criteria of an ecologically friendly tour was established. The difference in the price that young tourists are willing to pay for a tour that meets all the sustainability criteria was revealed. As a result, by analyzing the responses to the questionnaire, those respondents who have high environmental awareness were highlighted.