Professional tourism education: problems and opportunities to solve them

The article examines the modern nature of the development of tourism education, its mis-sion and purpose. The most important problems hindering its development are identified. The inter-sectoral nature of the tourism segment and the variety of approaches to defining basic concepts and categories makes it difficult to train qualified personnel in multi-faceted areas of professional activi-ty. The lack of approved professional standards that would allow us to consolidate the preparation of university students for the necessary labor functions of a specialist in the field of tourism in the educational standards in the areas of training «Tourism», «Hotel Business», «Service» does not al-low us to effectively manage the process of preparing bachelors and masters. The lack of a unified approach to the management of tourism activities at different levels affects the formation of the dis-ciplines of the work plan for bachelor's and master's degrees in tourism, which affects the forecast-ing of the destination's need for personnel for all spheres and levels of the tourism industry. Insuffi-cient study of international experience in the implementation of educational programs and the use of new technologies in teaching leads to insufficient academic mobility of teachers and students, the inability to organize international network cooperation and the system of «double» diplomas, as well as the lack of knowledge of graduates about effective international practices in various types of tourism. The weak involvement of employers in the training of students who are able to carry out effective tourism practices leads to an insufficient relationship of disciplines with practical work and modern processes of tour operator, travel agency, and hotel activities. The use of traditional outdated educational technologies, ignoring the features of modern students leads to an inefficient organization of the educational process and the loss of students ' interest in the chosen field of pro-fessional activity. Based on the experience of the Department of Tourism of Petrozavodsk State University and Leningrad State University named after A. S. Pushkin, the recommendations to im-prove the quality of the educational process were identified, the possibilities of using a distance learning approach and the most attractive educational technologies for students and teachers were clarified. The identified problems and recommendations can be used in the future to create an up-to-date model of the system of continuous tourist education. The article will be of interest to repre-sentatives of the professional tourist community as well as educational organizations that train per-sonnel for the tourism industry.