State and formation trends of gastronomic tourism elements in Russia

Gastronomic tourism is a dynamically developing type of world and domestic tourism. It allows revealing the origins of the culture of different peoples, countries and regions. Russia is characterized with a variety of gastronomic tourist resources, which are used insufficiently to turn this type of tourism into a source of stable inflow of travelers to its territory. The purpose of this study was to analyze the existing approaches to the development of elements and products of gastronomic tourism in the Russian Federation, which revealed a number of characteristic features and not fully realized opportunities. The results of the study contributed to: 1) the identification of the following features of gastronomic tourism development in the country: today the development of specialized tours has just begun; the formation of these tours is limited to several regions. However, the number of tour elements (offers of cafes, restaurants, gastronomic museums, festivals, festivals, exhibitions, fairs, agricultural complexes, farms and other objects) increases, and this fact determines the possibility of making full-fledged tourist routes; 2) the determination of the trends which can show the potential of this type of tourism on the basis of combining its elements with products of other types (ethnographic, rural, event, religious, children, educational) and the preparation of combined tours that increase the synergetic effect and promote the development of domestic and inbound tourism in the regions of the country. It is concluded that the identified features and trends in the development of gastronomic tourism in Russia have a positive orientation and the consolidation of joint efforts of all stakeholders will ensure its achievement of a worthy place in the domestic and global markets.