DESIGNING TOURIST ROUTES AS A WAY TO INСREASE COMPETITIVENESS
OF THE NATIONAL TOURIST INDUSTRY 

Semerkova Lyubov' Nikolaevna, Doctor of economic sciences, professor, head of sub-department of marketing, commerce and services, Penza State University (40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia), penzamarketing@mail.ru
Zinchenko Svetlana Vladimirovna, Candidate of economic sciences, associate professor, sub-department of marketing, commerce and services, Penza State University (40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia), penzamarketing@mail.ru, slatynova@mail.ru

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10.21685/2072-3016-2016-3-20

Background. An axiom of the government’s policy in tourism of any country is all possible assistance to increasing internal and inbound tourism. First of all, the economic effect of tourism is the reason for such policy. Over the last decade Russia strongly entered the international tourist market and it is necessary to enhance the competitiveness of the national tourism industry in conditions of the global competition. One of the main factors hindering this process and impeding the realization of the tourism potential is a deficit of competitive tourist routes in the country. The goal of the study is to research the practice of designing tourist routes at the level of Russian tour operators of inbound and internal tourism, and also at the level of the state.
Materials and methods. The research tasks were implemented on the basis of studying the normative legal acts of the Russian Federation in the sphere of tourism, the secondary analysis of tourism research results. In addition, the authors’ technique of researching a range of tourist routes of the Russian tour operators was used. The research methodology was based on the works by Russian scientists in the field of tourism and the system approach.
Results. It has been revealed that most tour operators of internal and inbound tourism don’t perform its main function of designing innovative tourist routes. At the level of the state this activity is conducted generally in the direction of designing interregional tourist routes. By the existing capacity of development of tourism in the country there are no mechanisms of its converting in a liquid competitive tourist’s product – tourist routes interesting to Russian and foreign tourists.
Conclusions. Due to the market demand for internal and inbound tourism in Russia in conditions of the global competition it becomes urgent to develop competitive tourist routes, which collect together all existing factors, means and technologies of production. It is important to use the public-private partnership in creating national routes.

inbound tourism, internal tourism, tour operator, tourist industry, tourist route, design, competitiveness

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