SOCIOLOGY OF TOURISM:DEVELOPMENT AND ROLE IN TOURISM SECTOR MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Introduction. The purpose of this article is to analyze the development of the sociology of tourism and the possibility to develop a comprehensive knowledge, including data from economic, geographical, politi- cal and other sciences in the field of tourism. The issues of the sociology of tourism formation, the develop- ment of the subject area of the sciences of tourism remain under-researched today, which provides for the relevance of the chosen topic.

Materials and methods. The article uses a systematic approach to analyzing tourism sciences for tourism management. The research materials were theoretical and practical works on tourism, both from foreign and Russian sources.

Results. The process of the sociology of tourism development is researched. The issue of potential formation of the comprehensive tourism knowledge (a unified science of tourism) is studied; the importance of sociological research in the tourism management is shown. Each of the many heterogeneous components of tourism as a systematic institution is a specific management object, which requires diverse knowledge of a specific applied character, and at the same time represents an integral system for the successful interaction with it. The main components of such a system are knowledge about economic, social, cultural and political state of the destination, obtained through specific sociological methods. The article reveals the role of tour- ism sociology methods in solving management problems in the tourism sector.

Discussion. The boom in the tourism research development has generated many areas of its study of an economic, social, cultural, political, and other nature. Interdisciplinary research is recognized as an important means of solving social problems in the tourism sector based on an integrated approach. This actualizes the issue of the interdisciplinarity of touristic knowledge. Most tourism researchers consider tourism knowledge as an interdisciplinary field. However, the study of tourism applies, rather, different disciplinary approaches than real interdisciplinarity. The issue of interdisciplinarity of tourist knowledge is connected with the specifics of studying tourism. Tourism, as a research object, has different dimensions and perspectives, and to understand its nature, an interdisciplinary approach is requires. The sociology of tourism, on the one hand, performs the function of tourism knowledge integration and on the other hand, supplies specific knowledge for all areas of the tourism sector.