Studying the portrait of Crimean tourist: theoretical and practical aspects

The study deals with the formation and study of the portrait of the modern Crimean tourist. The article investigates the new trends in consumer behavior of tourists as a result of demographic changes and changing approaches to travel. The dynamics of departure of Russians to abroad and preferences of Russians to rest in 20152018 are studied. The authors consider the geography of arrival of tourists on the basis of materials of the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of the Republic of Crimea. Using the methods of questionnaires and social surveys the article analyzes the data on the main categories of tourists, methods of booking vacation spots, sources of information about the rest in the Crimea, the reasons for choosing a holiday in the Crimea. Trends about the presence of intentions to visit the Crimea again, as well as important wishes of tourists to improve comfort on vacation are revealed. Based on the analysis of the data obtained, authors identify main characteristics of the "new" tourism, and propose a general model of the "new tourist" and the"new" tourist product. It is concluded that identifying, stimulating and meeting the current needs of tourists is the key task of the tourism industry. Creation of the portrait of a tourist consumer can help to determine the consumer needs. The authors propose to understand the consumer portrait as generalized image of the tourist, which is endowed with a variable set of parameters. It is proved that the creation of a consumer portrait will help to identify the user, which will allow developing a range of services that would best meet the tourist needs. Creating a portrait requires preliminary research, such as the collection, analysis, systematization of data.