Regional tourist complexes and clusters: similarities and main differences

Abstract

Today, the attractiveness of the tourist market is characterized by the speed and rate of growth of its volumes. Strategic tourism development and the formation of appropriate strategies should aim to ensure the possibility of rapid promotion of tourist services in the tourist market, with varying degrees of development (growing, developing and developed). The rationale for this view of the development of tourism necessitates the use of different approaches, and especially the formation and development of tourist complexes and clusters based on tourism resources, the set of objects of tourist infrastructure, functionally and organizationally linked together. However, many theorists and practitioners in their scientific, methodological and practical activities use various treatments, such as "tourist complex" and "tourism cluster". Most experts identify these two concepts. Experts in the field of tourism methodology suggest the complexity of the construction of tourism clusters and the use of the cluster approach in the creation of tourist complexes. So are these concepts similar? Maybe they have the same meaning? Or do the main differences relate to practice? Or, conversely, from the standpoint of practice are they the same thing? Are there any differences, and if so, what they are? It should be noted that all these issues need to be clarified in relation to the main differences and similarities of the concepts, values and practical significance of these terms. The authors of the present article made an attempt to identify common features and main differences between tourist complexes and clusters. In our view, the problem of identifying these terms ("complex" and "clusters") today exists not only in tourism.