Image of mountains as tourist objects: Caucasus and Altai

The article aims to identify the ways to verbalize the images of the Caucasus and Altai mountains as tourist sites in the minds of Russians. The main focus is made on sensory, associative and conceptual features that form the images of these regions. A survey conducted among 60 informants enabled to reveal key features associated with Caucasus and Altai, such as nature, beauty and strength. It also helped design a structured model of the verbal images. The obtained results showed that the core of the image of Caucasus includes the elements of mountains, strength and cultural heritage, while the core of the image of Altai combines ecology, pristine nature and beauty. Prenuclear classes of features BEAUTY, STRENGTH, SIZE, FEELINGS were identified in both images, but the first three were more important in the image of Caucasus, whereas the last one appeared more important for the image of Altai. The study also found classes characteristic for only one image out of the two. Strong ties between classes of features in the verbal image of Caucasus were discovered between such components of the image as nature, strength, people and size, while in the image of Altai strong ties were found between such components of the image as nature, ecology and beauty.