THE STRATEGY OF PROMOTION AND SALES OF THE RUSSIAN TOURIST PRODUCT: A NEW APPROACH TO MARKETING

Despite the fact that in recent years there has been accumulated a considerable experience in the theory and practice of promoting Russia as a tourist destination, there has not yet been found a solution for such important tasks as the adaptation of the theme and service content of the Russian tourist product to the expectations of the audience of main target markets, defining the specifics of promotion programs in accordance with national characteristics of cross-regions, the formation of customer loyalty programs, including through the selection of the most effective communication channels, as well as the task of creating a single brand or a combination of local brands of Russia with a high level of visibility and credibility. This material presents the results of the study, which was carried out by the creative team of Russian State University of Tourism and Service, in order to prepare proposals for optimizing the formation of federal policy to promote the Russian tourist product. As the resulting component of the study there was formed a medium-term strategy for the promotion and marketing of the Russian tourist product on the markets of European countries and markets in Asia and the Pacific. The main provisions of the strategy consist in identifying priority types of tourism for potential consumers of the Russian tourist product both in the international and domestic tourist markets, building ratings of priorities for sales policy, allocating key expectations from visiting destinations in the Russian Federation for the purpose of tourism and on this basis improving the route network and service component of tourism.