TOURISM IN SMALL HISTORICAL TOWNS OF THE TULA REGION: THE CONCEPT OF CREATING THE BOGORODITSK-VENEV-EPIFAN CLUSTER
Small historical towns have a special status and significance in the socio-economic development of the country, but such territories have a small range of `opportunities to form a wide offer that meets the needs of tourists. To increase the competitiveness of small towns as tourist destinations, it is advisable to combine them into tourist clusters that will create an optimal offer for tourists and increase the attractiveness of the destination. The formation of tourist clusters contributes to the development of the territory's infrastructure, increase jobs, and improve the overall standard of living of the population. The paper analyzes the results of research by domestic and foreign authors, which raises the issue of creating tourist clusters and their economic efficiency. Many authors have come to the conclusion that cluster technologies stimulate and support communication between enterprises and infrastructure elements that are part of the cluster, form a complex system that optimizes business, and its individual elements are United by material, information, and financial flows. In addition, the formation of a tourist cluster positions the region accordingly and creates its positive image. In the Tula region, the formation of tourist clusters is also practiced, but the potential of not all territories is used. The article analyzes the dynamics of tourism development indicators in the Tula region, provides information on already formed tourist clusters. The article considers small towns of the Tula region, which are former outposts of the Great Abatis Border, that are promising for creating a tourist cluster. The results of the analysis of display objects, infrastructure, tourist routes that include visits to Bogoroditsk, Venev, Epifan, as well as advertising and information activities in these small cities are presented. The main prerequisites for creating a new tourism cluster are identified as a result of the SWOT analysis. In this paper, the concept of creating a tourist cluster «Bogoroditsk-Venev-Epifan» is developed, the uniqueness of which lies in its versatility, as it allows you to create tourist routes of various directions. The project to create a tourist cluster is designed to stabilize the socio-economic situation on the territory, ensure the sustainable development of small historical cities and expand the strategic opportunities of the Tula region. The proposed measures for the development of the cluster's tourism infrastructure, which can be used by local governments for the development of tourism in small historical cities of the Tula region.