Event tourism: trends in regional development

The article is devoted to event tourism as a promising area of tourist activity. Event tourism gained wide popularity in the world and is under development in Russia's regions. Disclosure of its capacity is associated with understanding of the organization and carrying out of events of different functional orientation (business, sports, cultural, historical, holiday, etc.), and also with comprehension of the need to consolidate the joint efforts of all entities involved in the tourism sector and the countries concerned. The methodology of research is based on the comparative analytical method that lies in identifying, analysis and assessment of existing approaches to enhance the prestige and the role of event tourism in the regions of the country, give it national importance, identify new areas for development and attract the attention of tourists and the public. The article gives a brief analysis of outcomes of National Award in the field of event tourism «Russia Event Awards» in 2012-2015, particularly, increasing the number of nominations, claimed by organizers, the number of participating regions, the diversity of the projects submitted by individual regions, are observed. As well as the assessment of directions of use the potential of event tourism Moscow region is given. The research results allowed identifying the following inherent to the present stage trend of regional development of event tourism in the country: growth of interest in its formation and promotion from the authorities, business structures of the tourism industry and the public; the desire for a more complete disclosure of existing capacity; the use of inter-regional partnerships in the development and implementation of the event-related projects; creation of the necessary material base; active promotion of event products on the market. The authors concluded that the identified trends in the development of regional event tourism in the Russian Federation have a positive orientation and provide a basis for predicting the growth of competitiveness in the domestic market.