Promotion of the town of Totma in Vologda region through organization of scientific and practical conferences

The article analyzes the marketing opportunities of scientific conferences and forums for the study and promotion of tourism clusters of regional scale, among which is the ancient town of Totma, Vologda Region. Town of Totma according prevailing opinion was founded in 1137. Today it is a sufficiently developed tourism cluster, which includes administrative authorities, a variety of cultural institutions, monasteries and churches, the organization of transport, food services, hotel chain, education, commerce, leisure and entertainment, the mass media and advertising, monuments and nature reserves. Distances from the regional center (Vologda) in more than 200 km, the lack of railway communication with it, make it difficult to attract tourists. Nevertheless, the town of Totma with a population of only 9915 people (as of 2015) is visited annually by more than 130 000 tourists. The complex of marketing means of the cluster’s tourism services promotion includes the organization of scientific and practical conferences and forums. This is confirmed by the examples of the All-Russian scientific and practical conference "Cultural and educational tourism as a factor of development of the Russian province", held in Totma in September 18-21, 2014, the II All-Russian scientific and practical forum "Museums and tourism as factors of development of the Russian province" conducted in September, 2015, and scientific-practical conferences dedicated to the works of the famous poet N. Rubtsov that are regularly held in the town.