Exploitation of potential of industrial tourism by metallurgical enterprises of contemporary Russia

During the transition to the postindustrial knowledge economy the world witnesses people’s increasing desire to spend their spare time in an interesting and quality way, to live an active lifestyle, to develop themselves and get new impressions. Consequently, there is an intense growth of new forms and types of economic, social and cultural activity aimed at satisfying the existing demand. One of the most impressive phenomena of the presentday economy is industrial tourism. It provides new visual impressions and satisfies people’s interest to complicated industrial process, to the evolution of technological development of modern civilization and also to the history of their families. For manufacturing companies industrial tourism means more intense exploitation of their facilities, additional income from tours, excursions and souvenirs. In terms of providing industrial touristic services Russia’s most attractive sites include metallurgical enterprises. Their peculiar features such as large scale of constructions and technological process, bright visual effects related to the transformations of metal find a ready market in the experience economy. Moreover, by means of industrial tourism metallurgical enterprises will be able to solve the important tasks of attracting new qualified employees, creating a positive corporate image and business reputation in the society and maintaining prestige and respect for workers and engineers.