An integrated approach to the planning and management of a transboundary tourism cluster (the case of Russian-Lithuanian-Polish cross-border tourism and recreational region, adjacent to the Vishtynetskoe lake)

Cross-border regions more and more are becoming the object of study for the nature sciences and humanities. There are international seminars and conferences dedicated to the problems of cross-border cooperation held more and more often. The authors of the articles tend to focus either on the natural sciences or in the socio-economic issues. However, cross-border tourism regions require an integrated both an ecological and socio-economic approaches, as quite often the basis for their formation is a transboundary natural site. During the life cycle of the border regions, on the stage of growth, some of them transform into cross-border clusters. In this process, a significant role is given to tourism as one of the engines of the formation of sustainable cross-border links. Natural objects, as one of the most popular types of tourist destinations, appear as special centers (poles) of cluster formation. The Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation can be taken as an example of the formation of this kind of cross-border tourism regions. One of the most interesting cross-border sites is Lake Vištytis (Vyshtynetskoe) and the adjacent forest, located on the territory of three countries - Lithuania, Poland and the Russian Federation. The article analyzes the area for the presence of signs for the region-identified internal and external factors of the formation of cross-border tourism region. The estimation of pos- sibilities and conditions of cross-border tourism cluster formation is presented.