The specifics of tourism as a complicated socio-economic system

Number of factors specific to the tourism industry was considered in the article: a multiplier effect, a peculiar way formation of circulating assets, the specificity of "invisible exports", the factor most risky types of activities, the principle of the direct and inverse transformation, and others. Data are of experts the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on tourism as an indicator of welfare. The emphasis is placed along with economic function of tourism on the social component of tourism in its mass phenomenon. The paper identified the main problems and shortcomings of tourism as a complex socio-economic system; analysis of theoretical approaches to periodization of tourism that reflects the genesis of approaches regarding the nature of tourism; examines the factors external and internal tourism development, made their ranking with measurement measures the connection between the periods allocated for tourism development using Spearman the rank correlation coefficient.