Tourism as Social and Cultural Practice and its Impact on Urban Culture

The article proposes the thesis that modern mass tourism is a specific urban social and cultural practice. The specifics of life in urbanized settlements provoke a person's desire to travel. At the same time cities have a high «tourist capacity», because they themselves are the centers of mass tourist flows attracted by the high concentration of tourist places of interest there. Along with this, mass tourism practices have a return- not always positive-effect on the development of cities. The extent of this influence depends on the role which tourism plays in the economy of the city and how it can be considered as a «tourist center». Specialized tourist cities suffer from large tourist flows and even impose entry restrictions to preserve the cultural and historical heritage and tranquility of local residents. Cities that only open for themselves the prospects for the development of mass tourism, on the contrary, change to please tourists: their leaders think about the formation of a positive geographic image, branding, such cities become more proportionate to man, artificially create the sights. Such policy gives economic and social effect - it replenishes the city budget, «revitalizes» abandoned urban areas and entire cities, creates new forms of tourist practices.