Tourism and the preservation of Old Belief in Estonia: the frontstage and backstage of Estonian Old Believers

The Estonian Old Believers (EOB) are a culturally endangered small Estonian national minority. Thanks to the government’s support to tourism development some secular and religious aspects of the EOB’s cultural heritage have been used to organize ‘tourism of Old Belief’. The organization of such tourism and its effects on the preservation of Old Belief have not been addressed in the relevant policy-making. Analysis shows that project-based tourism organization, which lacks coordination and the application of sustainability in the context of this community, has only a minimal economic effect. And due to the effect of commodification, tourism challenges the EOB culturally. This raises a question about the limits of tourism organization, which is understood in terms of a differentiation of the frontstage and backstage of EOB life.