The importance of municipalities in forming tourism industry within the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory

The article investigates the aspects of municipalities' participation through documents of social and economic and territorial planning in the tourist industry development within Irkutsk part of the Central ecological zone of the Baikal Natural Territory (CEZ BNT). This territory has a rich recreational potential. There are the climate, landscapes, natural environment and natural conditions, as well as historic and cultural special aspects. On the other hand, the location near the unique object as Lake Baikal inflicts huge limitations on the economic activity types. Therefore tourism and recreation should be regulated. In this regard, the attraction of tourists by the interesting and quality tourist product, safety and comfort, as well as providing local employment in tourism and recreation facilities under conditions of limited economic activity, and at the same time preserving unique natural landscapes of Lake Baikal are the task of the municipal government. The intentions of municipalities in the tourism development are reflected in the documents of social and economic and territorial planning. The first of them determines tourism as an economic activity in the social and economic development of municipal districts, the possibility of becoming tourism as the base of the municipal economy. Trends of municipal government activity, target indicators, amount of finance, investment projects allow estimating the complexity to the tourism industry development. The territorial planning documents shows using of the territory potential of the CEZ BNT for the tourist facilities and infrastructure. As a result, we got a unique rating of the activity and interest of municipal government in the tourist and recreational sphere development. The article was written in the course of research project No. 0347-2016-0006 «Socio-geographical factors of ecological and socio-economic transformations in the Siberian regions from the standpoint of sustainable development».