Author tours as a modern format of travel organization

Currently, more publications both in scientific publications and on the pages of Internet users are devoted to author tours, with considerable attention paid to the issues of business organization, the search for unusual attractors to include them in the tour program, while emphasizing their complexity, exclusivity and the need to meet the needs of consumers. It is the desire for new experiences, the need to more fully meet the needs of cognition requires a review of approaches to the development of travel programs. The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of the essence of author’s tours, identifying the reasons for the growing popularity, trends in tourism, which influenced the development of author’s tours. The authors accepted author’s tours as the object of research, and the subject is the organization of author’s tours. The analysis of about 100 companies - organizers of author’s tours, posting information about themselves in the social networks “Vkontakte”, “Instagram” and the search engine “Google” showed that this market is mainly occupied by «young» companies without proper legal registration of business activities. It has been established that the main reasons for the increasing popularity of signature tours and the number of entrepreneurs in this area are related to the trends of the tourist market and changes in consumer demand for the tourist product, namely: more and more individualization, getting a unique experience and unique experiences, development of domestic tourism and discovery of new regions and the unique properties of tourist attractors. However, the organization of author’s tours today is considered more as a process of making money quickly, rather than from the position of its scientific and qualitative design. The authors have analyzed the pros and cons in the organization of signature tours and formulated the main requirements. Theoretical significance of the study lies in the study of the essence and main characteristics of author’s tours. The practical significance is associated with the increase in the effectiveness of the organizers of the author’s tours by improving the quality of the tourist product demanded in the modern market of tourist services.