Industrial tourism is well developed in North America and European countries such as France, Britain, Germany and Netherlands. Only in France, 1,700 companies organize tours around their premises and production sites. Among the leaders is the Rance tidal power plant in Brittany which welcomes 300,000 tourists every year. In the UK, the British confectionary producer Cadbury is visited by 400,000 people per year. In Spain, the industrial tourism benefits among other things from wine tourism, in France from cheese tourism, in the Netherlands from flower-related tours and in Finland glass-blowing factories are highly popular.
The origin of industrial tourism can be traced to American companies. When in 1866 the Jack Daniel"s distillery was established at the same time the company opened its doors to tourists. Today, there are only few companies in the U.S. that do not organize tours around their premises.
In Russia, only a few dozen companies are aware of the advantages industrial tourists represent as reported by Russian portal Travel.ru. However the demand for such tours is immense. For example, if you are interested in touring a famous Moscow chocolate factory prepare for long waiting. All tours until March 2010 are already booked.
Most of the tour operators who have been offering various types of sightseeing around industrial complexes simply added these kinds of trips to their usual tours. However, thanks to their popularity several travel companies started specializing only in industrial tours. Most of the offered trips lead tourists through the region around Moscow but tours around large industrial complexes in Ural and Siberia are currently negotiated too.