SMALL BUSINESS AS A SOCIO-ECONOMIC BASIS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM INDUSTRY IN THE REGION
Tourism has a significant impact on economic development of the regions, encouraging the currency inflow into the country, creating new jobs, improving infrastructure. In this regard, creation of supporting business environment is an objective condition for the effective functioning of small businesses, which form the basis of entrepreneurial activity in tourism. The development of tourism entrepreneurship in the Astrakhan region is characterized by an increase in the number of subjects and objects of the tourist market, the number of tourists and volume of services provided, both due to the presence of unique natural and recreational resources and systemic interaction of subjects of small entrepreneurship within the tourism cluster. The analysis of tourism entrepreneurship in the region has identified a number of issues affecting tourism development: a high share of shadow business entities, monoproductivity, ineffective strategic management, absence of a unified system of state support, etc. The solution of these issues can be found due to the working out and implementing the strategy of tourism development, one aspect of which is the creation of a supporting business environment as a tool for improving the competitiveness of the tourism industry in the region.