The tourism practices: from information to experience

The article examines the modern tourism practices of branded tourism. Sug- gested that tourism practices are developing in the direction of reducing the informational component and increasing of the emotional component, and impressions are becoming the basic economical offer of modern tourism. As historical sources of the tourism institutionalization the author defines phe- nomena of trade, pilgrimage and science. Character types of merchant, pil- grim and scientist are classified as the social prototypes of tourism back- ground. Modern tourism practices are considered in the context of theoretical models of "experience economy" and the "consumer society". The basic de- velopment directions of the branded tourism in the West are defined. The author gives own definition of branding as a stable trend in the consumer society of industrial creation of images of goods, events, territories, countries, etc. The article shows that the brand is based on the emotional response of target audiences and the cultural context of the country, region and social groups is explicated in the content of brand. It is concluded that strong brands are becoming attractive objects of the tour- ism market, relevant to the logic of "experience economy". Branded tourism trace its roots in the second half of the XX century, when the US trade compa- nies have started to use a new trade model and the mall has become posi- tioned as an attraction for tourists. The author gives the examples of the successful use of branded tourism and shows that international brands devel- op projects of their own branded tourism. The article offers several directions of creating branded tourism projects in Russia.