Factors of tourism competitiveness of regions: approaches to defi nition and classifi cation

The published materials were prepared within the framework of the State Assignment No. 075–00126– 25–00 dated 12/25/2024 of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for the implementation of the research work “Scientific approaches to the structural assessment of the tourism competitiveness of the Russian constituent entities Federation, including system monitoring and forecast estimates of development”. The article is devoted to the exploration of approaches to the definition and classification of factors for formation, provision and improvement of tourism competitiveness of regions within the framework of construction and improvement of scientific and methodological basis of its assessment. The article is normative in nature, as it sets out goals and objectives for further research in terms of clarifying the wording and content of the term «tourist competitiveness of the region», list, structure and classification groups of factors relevant to its assessment, taking into account the specifics of the regions of the Russian Federation and in the context of modern challenges in developing the national tourism industry. The article gives a brief retrospective of scientific research and works in the field of factor analysis, modelling, indexing, and other methods for assessing tourist competitiveness, as well as theoretical and methodological approaches to identifying and classifying the factors of tourist competitiveness. Also discussed are the issues related to classification groups and criteria for assigning certain factors of tourist competitiveness, as well as problems of substantive intersection of concepts such as «factor», «determinant», «criterion», and «indicator» in the development and modification of existing methods for assessing tourist competitiveness.