Technology for monitoring sustainable development of tourist destinations through the assessment of management and status indicators

The article is devoted to the formation of technology for monitoring the sustainable development of tourist destinations. The main hypothesis of research proposes that the effective tool for controlling the implementation of the sustainable development theory in tourist destinations is «monitoring of sustainable development of tourist destinations». We included the system of indicators in the monitoring technology. This system conforms to the following criteria: available information gathering for the indicators and subsequent development of indices based on them, the possibility of estimating time-dynamics, stability of the information, and its reliability, a limited number of indicators, interpretability, sensitivity, controllability, and representation. On the basis of the analysis of the existing world and Russian experience in forming the system of assessment criteria of sustainable tourism development and in identifying the system of indicators we found that at the moment in the Russian Federation, the existing systems of tourism monitoring is not taking into account many key provisions of the theory of sustainable tourism development. The system of indicators, which we offered, is based on the global criteria for sustainable development approved by the world tourism organization, but takes into account the requirements established by the regulations of the Russian Federation. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that there has been developed an adapted monitoring technology, which forms a system of requirements for the mechanism of sustainable tourism development management in destinations, taking into account the main mechanisms of state and municipal management in the Russian Federation, established by approved Federal laws and programs. Logical and mathematical modeling is used for evaluation. Each indicator is measured on its own scale, focused on the preference for protected figures (its growth means improvement, if we consider it in isolation from the others) or harm (its growth means deterioration). Indicators are divided into two groups - «status indicators» and «management indicators». Quantitative values determined by statistical reports of enterprises and management bodies of destinations are established for "status indicators». «Management indicators» characterize the presence or absence of the necessary management mechanisms for sustainable tourism development in the territory and form guidelines for the authorities of the destination. In the developed technique, we proposed 35 status indicators and 34 management indicators developed on the basis of 39 criteria. For implementation of the offered technology the technique of carrying out «Monitoring of sustainable tourism development» in the territory is developed. Management measures of three stages of monitoring implementation as a management tool have been developed. The results of the study in the form of «Methods for monitoring the sustainable development of tourist destinations» are proposed for implementation in a number of regions to improve the efficiency of tourism development in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.