ИСТИНА

The paper discusses how to manage tourism development in areas at natural risk. Although mountain areas and sea coasts are prone to risks of various natural hazards and disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, debris flows, snow avalanches, landslides, etc., they attract the largest number of visitors and are widely used for tourism and recreational purposes. Therefore, it is very important to manage visitor flows in such areas to create opportunities for tourism activities, on the one hand, and reduce dangerous impacts of natural hazards on tourists to the possible lowest level, on the other hand. A long tradition of using areas at natural risk for tourism purposes have such countries as Japan, China, and Italy, which, for example, have very useful and interesting experiences in the development of recreation and tourism in areas of active volcanism (Aso and Usu volcanoes in Japan, Etna in Italy, Yangmingshan National Park in Taiwan, etc.). Despite the real danger coming from volcanoes, they are among of the most attractive natural sites. In particular, it confirmed interviews that we conducted at university centers of Russia and Japan in the framework of a joint project; all respondents evaluated volcanic landscapes as very attractive, as compared to other types of natural landscapes. Other examples are areas in Japan most affected by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. There are suggestions to develop in these areas the so called “recovery tourism” that will support the restoration of affected communities.