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This paper aims to explain the development of the Siberian Trakt (Siberian Way) project and discuss methodological, instrumental and technological questions related to its implementation. The paper also aims to explore the project’s ability to form a collaborative tourism network that boosts tourism development in the unique Siberian regions of Russia located in the very center of the Eurasian continent.

A multidisciplinary view and case approach are the basic methods chosen to illustrate and analyze the prospects for tourist network development in Siberia within the framework of the Siberian Trakt project.

The findings reveal the opportunities arising from the project. The Siberian Trakt helps to combine the resources of surrounding territories, brings over external resources to the investment foundations of the project and thus adds to the development of settlements that are participants in the project.

The main output of this paper is confirmation of useful approaches in tourism network development along the Siberian Trakt, which historically connected Central Russia with Siberia and the Far East. On the basis of the experience of the Siberian Trakt project, the problems and prospects of Siberia as new tourism destinations are shown, as well as the role of small settlements as important nodes of the regional tourism network.

This paper aims to review recent developments in the Russian tourism and hospitality market and to underline Russia’s strong tourism prospects – despite the challenges it has to face.

The study sets the scene for the theme issue (that draws from both academia and industry) by discussing the challenges facing the contemporary Russian tourism and hospitality market. It also profiles the efforts of the Russian Government to boost tourism development in different Russian regions that are potentially attractive tourist destinations due to their natural resources and cultural heritage.

The paper sheds light on the major shift to domestic tourism that is partly due to the turbulent economic environment that is forcing Russia to search for internal sources of development. At the same time, the decision to rely on diversity of opportunities and sustainable regional tourism makes it possible to have a broad variety of tourist value propositions in almost all parts of Russia. This also makes Russia more attractive to foreign tourists. Still, to make Russia a popular destination internationally, improvement in almost all elements of the Russian tourist product is needed.

This theme issue provides an analysis and evaluation of tourism development in Russia in the current decade and, in so doing, contributes to knowledge of the fast developing Russian tourism and hospitality market by unveiling a number of new tourist products and destinations in different Russian regions.

This paper aims to review the contributions made to the strategic question about the challenges and opportunities driving the Russian tourism and hospitality market as it becomes more diverse with new destinations.

Based on the strategic question, a brief analysis of each contribution was carried out to identify the key findings, as they relate to the theme.

The findings reveal 11 key characteristics related to major issues and shifts in the contemporary Russian tourism and hospitality market.

The findings add to the literature on hospitality and tourism in emerging markets by unveiling the pros and cons of developing new destinations and types of tourism in Russia. Overall, the theme issue provides a useful framework for discussion with a wider range of stakeholders. This is important to both academics and practitioners engaged in hospitality and tourism development and research.

All 11 articles have contributed different perspectives to the topic and confirm that it is important for all key stakeholders to consider both international trends in hospitality and tourism and the region-specific resources and opportunities that make many parts of Russia potentially attractive to different target audiences with broad interests and preferences.

As the global economy continues to boom, there remains a significant need for more efficient transportation and effective management in corporate logistics. In this regard, railways have been considered one of the most efficient modes for long distance transportation. In Asia, there are several extensive and direct railroads such as the TSR (Trans-Siberian-Railroad), the TCR (Trans-Chinese-Railroad) and the TMR (Trans-Mongolian-Railroad) which could connect Asia to Europe. If these railroad networks such as the TKR (Trans-Korean-Railroad) were fully operational, it is expected that they would replace a major portion of the current global trade transportation with is sent through other shipping methods. Therefore, the development of railroad networks is one of the most important steps toward an integrated international transportation system. However, in reality, it is difficult to achieve this vision because of the political and economic problems surrounding multiple countries that this network must cut across. Moreover, it is difficult to ensure the railways’ economic competitiveness when it is compared with other logistics options. In this study, we aim to discover the status quo about railway networks by focusing on the TCR and TSR. Through in-depth interviews and surveys with actual users of these networks, current issues and problems are analysed in order to make suggestions for improvements. This research also provides meaningful insights which the TKR-TSR and TKR-TCR railway networks should consider if they want to continue to be successful in the future.

Frank cases of scurvy are easily recognised and are satisfactory to treat. Even in Western Europe cases are met with under ordinary conditions of life, but mostly in poor countries among those living alone and not caring for themselves properly. It has been advanced that while frank scurvy is admittedly practically unknown in civilised countries, yet minor degrees of vitamin C deficiency are responsible for much vague ill‐health and disease other than scurvy. This theory is difficult to prove, and proof is lacking.

This paper aims to profile the WHATT theme issue “Why is the Russian tourism and hospitality market becoming more diverse with new destinations?” with reference to the experiences of the theme editor and writing team.

This paper uses structured questions to enable the theme editor to reflect on the rationale for the theme issue question, the starting-point, the selection of the writing team and material and the editorial process.

This paper provides a framework to facilitate discussion between all stakeholders in Russia’s tourism and hospitality industry, identifies ways of improving competitiveness as a tourist destination and contributes to thinking about sustainable development. The outcomes of a broad-ranging collaboration yield fresh insights, a deeper understanding of the issues and an array of possible responses to the theme issue question.

The theme issue outcomes provide lines of enquiry for others to explore and reinforce the value of WHATT’s approach to collaborative working and writing.

The collaborative work reported in this theme issue offers a unified but contrarian response to the theme’s strategic question. Taken together, the collection of articles provides a detailed picture of the changes occurring in the Russian tourism and hospitality market.

Recently the route connecting the trans-Korean railway and the trans-Siberian railway has become of particular interest for many academics and policy-makers in East Asian countries. The extensive review of previous studies, however, reveals that literature on the subject is lacking solid analytical framework. Most studies are one-sided, focusing on the political aspects of the issue or paying little attention to the economic aspects of the problem.

This study intends to develop an analytical framework through which the most efficient route among four major alternative routes connecting the trans-Korean and trans-Siberian railways can be identified. It attempts to assign priorities to the four alternative routes according to their level of economic efficiency.

This study utilizes a simple cost-benefit analysis in evaluating the four routes. Cost side, transportation time, effectiveness of customs procedures, and gauge difference are selected as the main economic factors. The volume of cargo, industrial production in adjacent regions, access to natural resources, and market size and foreign investment climate are used to evaluate the benefits of the routes.

The study concludes that Route 3, which connects ‘Busan - Seoul (South Korea) –Pyongyang -Sinuiju (North Korea) –Shenyang –Beijing - Erenhot (China) –Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) –Ulan-Ude - Moscow (Russia)’ is the most efficient route.

Open Source Information (OSI) and Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) are attracting enormous interest from the business, military and political intelligence communities. OSI and OSINT offer the prospect of delivering valuable intelligence, from so‐called open sources such as newspapers, experts, and online databases. While OSI and OSINT may offer considerable potential when employed to produce information on foreign countries, they are totally dependent on the researchers’ and analysts’ understanding of the target country‘s history, politics and society. A research project on the BAM (Baikal‐Amur Mainline) Railway in eastern Siberia provides a practical example of OSI. The project involved researching a book on the BAM (Baikal‐Amur Mainline) Railway in eastern Siberia using OSI alone as it was impossible to visit the region. The 3,084km BAM traverses an almost unpopulated region which had been virtually closed to Westerners since it became a major gulag zone in the 1930s. Once the book’s research was underway, it became clear that much of the English language published material was ill‐informed and contradictory. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the relaxation of travel restrictions, it was possible to validate the information gathered. This led to a number of surprising findings about the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the material collected outside Russia.

Not many weeks back, according to newspaper reports, three members of the library staff of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London were dismissed. All had refused to carry out issue desk duty. All, according to the newspaper account, were members of ASTMS. None, according to the Library Association yearbook, was a member of the appropriate professional organisation for librarians in Great Britain.