The analysis of the current status of tourism development in the Russian Federation has revealed that this industry is underdeveloped due to poor tourism infrastructure in the majority of the regions, lack of skills of workforce and weak realization of labor potential, poor informing and promoting of regions’ tourist resources. At present one of the most promising and fast growing tourist directions is event tourism when tourists visit events of interest. The article is aimed at the determination of the current status of event tourism in the Russian Federation and possibilities for its development. Based on the analysis of different kinds of tourism the author demonstrates the need for the development of event tourism as the most promising direction under current conditions, suggests its definition, and considers its features. Scientific novelty of the research is in studying tourism from the standpoint of the conceptual approach. The author has used methods of theoretical analysis, statistics analysis, synthesis, and comparison. The article presents socio-economic indicators of event tourism development in the world, share of this direction in tourism in the Russian Federation, as well as the data on tourist flow during several events taking place in the country. In conclusion the author proposes measures promoting the development of this direction in Russian regions; the key measures are the planning of events organized during the whole year, the creation of anchored events providing constant motivation for visiting, activation of informational support of events, new approaches to the extension of events’ content. The article is based on theoretical and methodological works of Russian and foreign researchers and specialists in the sphere of tourism, regional economy. The practical relevance of the study is in the fact that its results can be used in management decision making within the work on the development of regional programs concerning event tourism
Keywords
tourism, event tourism, event