New Tourism Concept of Ekaterinburg: How to Change the Tourism Product from “Historical” to “Modern”

A modern city is part of a «nomadic planet», a magnet for «insatiable tourists», and a place that attracts and retains talents through tourism. The speed of social change dictates the need to adjust urban development strategies, including the tourism development strategy of specific locations. The article presents the results of 2024 studies subordinated to the tasks of updating the «Strategic Development Plan of Ekaterinburg». Objective: adjusting the city's tourism development strategy by analyzing the current situation, involving active citizens and professionals in updating and developing an updated strategy for the development of urban tourism. Methods: analysis of legislative and regulatory documents and statistics (SberAnalytics, occupancy of collective accommodation facilities, airport passenger traffic, visits to city attractions and cultural events, etc.); in-depth interviews and questionnaires, facilitation sessions. The article highlights contradictions and obstacles to tourism development: with a wide variety of city symbols and events, the presence of enormous tourism potential in them, their underestimation and underrevealed nature are recorded; there is no common vision for the development of urban tourism, nor a single tourism brand for Ekaterinburg; each district should be developed, emphasizing its uniqueness, and there should be an institution that can unite the efforts of stakeholders. The main areas for updating the tourism development strategy in Ekaterinburg are formulated: «Industrial tourism: history of the city and mining civilization»: drawing up a timeline of Ekaterinburg, identifying key events and potential iconic symbols and tourist attractors in each of the historical periods, determining the attitude to the events; «Gastronomic tourism»: organizing and holding food festivals, promoting authentic Ural cuisine and local brands («Ural dumplings», «EZhK», «Smak»); «Cultural and event tourism»: Calendar of events, a system of interaction between event actors through the development of partnerships and resource exchange; «Business Ekaterinburg»: promoting services in different markets and creating a product for different target audiences; «Education and Science»: open university programs and events, internships and implementation of joint business projects, etc. Ekaterinburg is one of the leading centers of creative economy in Russia; the task of developing a new tourist concept of the city is to change the tourist product from “historical” to “modern” with subsequent transformation into an attractive city for potential relocation and demonstration of its unique opportunities for individuals and businesses.