How to restore confidence in the tourism industry?

The article presents the author’s vision of the ways of resolving the crisis situation in the tour operator and travel agency sectors of Russian tourism. The authors believe that the industry needs to return a significant degree of consumer confidence which is lost. The loss of confidence (along with the currency unstable market) has a negative impact on the overall situation in the market sales of tourism products and services, leading to a reduction in business activity, curtailment of tourist programs, reduction of income and therefore the tax base, and eventually to the exit of a significant number of tourism enterprises, loss of staff by travel agencies and so on. Analyzing the current conditions, the authors of the article as professionals “inside” highlight the major problem areas of the Russian market of tourism sales and offer concrete measures for its stabilization, including the example of emerging positive trends. Russian tourism as an institutionalized structure is in the process of formation of institutional values, norms and rules of intersubjective interaction. Thus, the role of professional associations becomes more prominent. Such associations as the Russian Union of Travel Industry (PCT), the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), the Alliance of Travel Agents (ATA), whose task is seen among others as creating and promoting a positive image of the tourism industry. However, the authors’ position is expressed in relation to professional ethics, which should be manifested in the daily practice of each employee of tourism. According to the authors, the current situation related to big shocks and bankruptcies of tour operators in the summer of 2014, exposed the problems of moral and ethical nature, professionalization in tourism has not reached the level of maturity where the quality of work is connected with the concept of professional honor, and the employees in tourism would develop a view of themselves as part of a professional community. As ways to improve the image component of the tourist market the author proposes to develop professional-social self-regulation, to integrate and consolidate agencies into professional agency networks.