Clusters as an Effective Mechanism for Managing Special Economic Zones of Tourist-Recreational Type in the Baikal Region
The purpose of the article is the theoretical foundation of the clusters formation process in the tourism sector as an effective mechanism for managing special economic zones of tourist-recreational type in the Baikal region. Creating an effective system of coordination and management processes of tourism development in the region involves the creation of an integrated regional tourism cluster. <br></br> The objects of study were both point free economic zones and integrated zones of tourist-recreational type in the two subjects of the Russian Federation. The article analyzes the experience of forming tourism cluster in the tourist-recreational zones of the Baikal region, taking into account the international experience. The Baikal is considered as a single object combining the territory, socio-economic space and clustering processes of the two subjects of the Russian Federation - the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia. <br></br> The subject of the research was the system of economic and organizational relations (including the international ones) in the process of formation and usage of tourism clusters. <br></br> The article singled out the main features of tourism development in the Baikal region, which is primarily determined by increased ecological requirements towards the objects of economic management in the territories of national parks and natural reserves. The authors formulated the basic problems of coordination and management of tourism cluster development and their solutions. They also proposed practical steps to consolidate the coordination functions for the relevant institutions, the formation of the cluster elements, the synchronization of its development with the related and supporting clusters, and the maintenance of stable chains to create the added value in the tourism and recreational zones of the Baikal region. <br></br> The article presents the scheme of the tourist cluster organization and its interaction with food-manufacturing and agricultural clusters within a single and coherent cluster policy in the Irkutsk region. A similar scheme from a practical point of view is acceptable for the Republic of Buryatia.