CLUSTERING AS A TOOL FOR MARKETING MANAGEMENT AND REGIONAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: PROBLEM STATEMENT

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the tourist clusters formation problems in the subjects of the Russian Federation and their capabilities in creating relevant tools for marketing management of regional tourist products. The authors investigated the prerequisites for the implementation of clustering tools in the marketing of regional tourism products, analyzed the main opportunities and prospects of the cluster approach. Further, the article discloses the specificity of tourist clusters, based on the features of tourist services as a type of economic activity. The authors considered the world experience in the formation of regional tourist clusters, and also substantiated their typical structure. This allowed us to identify and disclose the main approaches of the global travel industry to the formation of tourist clusters of territories and regions. Further in the article, the prerequisites and specific features of the formation of territorial tourist clusters in Russia are studied, as well as a comparative analysis of examples of clusterization in several countries of the Eurasian Economic Union is made, in particular, the Republic of Kazakhstan and Belarus. The factors hindering the development of regional tourism were identified, the possibilities of introducing a cluster approach were studied, and examples of successful functioning of tourist clusters in these countries of the geopolitical alliance were analyzed. Based on the study, it was concluded that the formation of regional tourist clusters can be considered as a tool for marketing management of the development of territories, however, successful clustering of regional tourism is possible only if there are national and regional strategies, including using public-private partnership tools.