Introduction. Currently, the formation of strategies is one of the most effective organizational and economic mechanisms to increase the share of tourism revenues in the region's economy. Modernizing the strategic management of regional tourism is one of the effective methods which help to solve the systemic problems of the tourism industry using the introduction in the process of tourism management tools, which will allow to use rationally existing natural, recreational, economic, personnel and managerial capabilities.

For Belgorod region the issues of improving strategic management of tourism are particularly relevant, as it will allow for more efficient allocation of managerial influence by state authorities on the optimal development of tourism, and also to use the economic opportunities to increase the profitability of the tourism industry that would contribute to improving the efficiency of the regional economy.

The issues of improving strategic management of the regional tourism development have not been fully studied and require more attention from the Russian economic science. In particular, the insufficiently studied problems of strategy development, the lack of developed criteria and indicators of efficiency of strategy of development of regional tourism, the unsolved problem of measuring and ranking the impact of external and internal factors on the implementation of the adopted strategy of development of tourism, there are no effective mechanisms for the implementation of the adopted strategy. In this regard, the relevance of this study is to improve the theoretical and methodological provisions of strategic management of regional tourism to ensure effective process of tourism development using organizational and economic mechanisms in the framework of strategic management.

The main part. Strategic management emerged in the scientific discipline as a response to the rapidly changing external environment of socio-economic development of any organizational and managerial structure; in recent years it has become one of the main tools to ensure their sustainable development. Of course, it is undeniable that at present the study of the strategic management process dedicated to a sufficient amount of works, both by Russian and foreign scientists. In the study  of the definition of «strategic management», the most significant of them  are  the  work  of  I. Ansoff,  A. A. Thompson,  A. J. Strickland, O. S. Vikhansky [4].

Today, there is a sufficient number of definitions of strategic management, and all of them, as we would like to note, share the following: strategic management is the process of making and implementing strategic decisions, the central element of which is a strategic choice, based on the comparison of own resource potential of the enterprise with opportunities and threats of the external environment in which it operates.

A fundamental transformation in the Russian economy, of course, is reflected in the tourism industry. In the conditions of increasing competition, rising costs, falling productivity, deteriorating quality of services, more and more organizations start to show interest to strategic management.

In the conditions of a developed market and high level of bankruptcies, success comes to only those companies that are able to create and implement a long-term strategy at the appropriate organizational level. Only professionals survive on the market today. The creation and implementation of the strategy becomes a crucial condition for the existence of the company in modern conditions.

Significant for our research becomes the concept of strategic management as a necessary component of the activities of firms in modern conditions, which is based on the general concepts and provisions that have occurred in other sectors of the economy, although it has a number of features in the implementation of individual strategies. However, it is necessary to consider the features of the tourism industry which concentrates on providing a defined range of services to clients, create additional complexity in the sphere of strategic management and planning.

Strategic management of tourism enterprises is reflected in the five main functions (fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Functions of the strategic management [7]

Рис. 1. Функциистратегическогоуправления

1. The lack of a regulatory framework for the development of a recreational complex.
2. The low level of infrastructure development.
3. The lack of a system of image policy in the recreational sector.
4. The reduction in the volume of public procurement in the sphere of sanatorium-resort treatment.
5. Inconsistency with international standards.

The strategy of management of the tourism industry in the region includes the process of developing specific activities and their implementation mechanism, the  roles  and responsibilities, as  well as the  development  of monitoring systems [4].

The government of Belgorod region, based on the scientific work of leading experts in the field of tourism, has been active in the process of drafting and implementation of the strategy of regional tourism. The priority direction of the Strategy 2025 is the reform of the recreational complex.

Summing up the experience of economists in this field of study, it should be noted that the continuity and connectedness of strategic management with the planning strategy of the tourism industry. The planning strategy also involves the performance of such sub-functions as forecasting, strategy and budgeting. Forecasting precedes the actual drawing up of strategic plans. It is based on the analysis of a wide range of internal and external factors – the conditions of functioning of the enterprise to foresight opportunities for the development and evaluation of risk. A systematic forecast allows you to develop a sound approach to strategy. Based on the results of the analysis, the company's management formulates the mission (the business sector, the global target), defines the prospects of development of the organization and developing a strategy [3]. The relationship between the strategic objectives of the enterprise with results of activity of separate divisions is carried out through the development of the necessary programme of action and budgeting. Budgeting includes the cost estimate of the program and allocation of resources [9].

Managing the implementation of strategic plans involves the formation of the future potential of the company, approval of the structure and management systems with the chosen strategy of development; creating a corporate culture that supports the strategy.

Coordination managers on the formation and implementation of the general strategy is to coordinate strategic decisions at various levels and consistent consolidation of the goals and strategies of the structural units on the higher levels of management.

Motivation as a function of strategic management is related to the development of a system of incentives for achieving strategic results.

The control consists in the continuous monitoring implementation of strategic plans. It is intended for advance determination of impending danger, to identify errors and deviations from accepted policies and strategies of the enterprise [2].

The main purpose of strategic management is the development and maintenance of strategic capacity for survival and effective functioning in conditions of unstable external environment. It is especially relevant for the enterprises of the tourism industry which are involved in hard competitive struggle.

Strategic management in tourism can be seen as a cost-effective activity to achieve long-term goals of a travel company on the basis of retention of competitive advantages and respond adequately to changes in the external environment. That is, the essence of strategic management is characterized by specific aims and efficiency, a priority given to the external environment, and gaining and maintaining a competitive advantage is considered as a means to achieve strategically significant results.

According to western estimates, only 5 businessmen working in the sphere of tourism develop and implement their own strategy for a profit higher than average, for others, this strategy is unavailable [6].

For its development and functioning of a tourism entity there is a need of having a sufficient economic weight and high economic mobility.

These qualities should allow to purposefully move in the ocean of the market economy, and not just float on the waves. The economic weight gives the possibility to resist the blows of a dynamic and uncertain external environment, to steadily follow the strategic course. The economic mobility creates conditions for effective maneuvering in a changing environment, skillful evasion of instability of market forces and consistent progress towards their goal, using hidden features of the external environment and speed of movement. The economic weight and mobility are determined primarily by resources of the organization, which differ in terms of volume and content.

It is the lack of resources – financial, logistical, informational, intellectual – which does not allow the enterprises of the tourism industry to successfully develop and implement a corporate strategy even in the most favourable external conditions. The role of resources in strategic management is fundamentally important not only because without them the subject will not achieve the strategic objectives. Resources are the capacity of the organization. Their strategic significance is, firstly, lies in their ability to develop the best for the subject strategy (source formation), and secondly, to fundamentally impact the external environment of the organization (nature of use), thirdly, in the specific strategic goals of the subject (direction of action). Development and implementation of the strategy of the organization require a large investment of resources [5].

On the one hand, this allows the majority of the tourism actors to raise the issue of strategy only in the theoretical plan, therefore, committed a major strategic error. Not all organizations are equally sure to vote strategically for the market. Mistakenly assessing their potential to consistently act in a long time, they are essentially alien to them in a strategic zone of managing [5].

And in this case we are talking not just about the possession of resources or opportunities to acquire them. The quality of management has a great importance, its ability to strategically rational to combine these resources to link them with the obvious competence of the organization. The most important characteristic of the strategic vision of the subject is to find an adequate resources niche market and to act in it. The development strategy of the organization is not limited to physical and financial resources and time [10].

Information and intellectual resources have a huge value. Development and implementation of strategic decisions assume possession of huge information – collected, systematized and analyzed during the whole time of maintaining the tourist industry. Without information there is no strategy, but information resources of the organization are closely connected with intellectual: the organization has to have shots which are able not just to develop the next business plan with one of techniques, but to define the tendencies of development of external environment, prospect of this or that business, to formulate the directions of development of the organization, to prove the need of concentration of means for strategic objectives. It is particularly necessary to pay attention to the organizational and structural strategic capacity of the organization. Summing up the aforesaid, we would like to allocate special, significant stages and content of strategic management of development of tourism in the region (fig. 2).

Рис.2. Этапы и содержание стратегического управления туристской отраслью в регионе