Development of an image of Russia as a country conducive to tourism

The materials of the paper refer to the grouping and rating of countries which are donors of international tourism in order to determine the activity of marketing efforts in the field of image formation of the Russian Federation as a country favorable for tourism. The article contains generalized mixed trends affecting inbound tourism, which formed in restrictive political and economic policies imposed on Russia by the EU, the US and other countries. In order to optimize the form and content of measures to promote the tourist image of Russia and to determine the priority and the most important geographical areas for the implementation of these measures the analysis was conducted according to the following criteria: volume of outbound tourist flows of foreign countries; the growth rate of outbound tourist flows of foreign countries; tourism activity of the populations of foreign countries; number of received foreign tourists by Russian according to their origin. The results of the analysis, which is also reflected in the materials of the article, make possible to distinguish four groups of countries on the trends in international outbound tourist flows, three groups of countries according to the trends in inbound flows in Russia, 4 groups of countries for the development of outbound tourist flows to Russia in the first half of the year 2014 in relation to the 1st half of 2013, four groups of countries on the activity of marketing efforts and specialization in promotion of Russian tourist product on the market. On the basis of these groups, a list of priority geographic areas to enhance marketing efforts to create a tourist image of the Russian Federation is suggested and also outlined are the directions and forms of work on priority markets in foreign countries.