In modern Russian society, the interest in systemic problems of recreation and tourism industry is growing increasingly due to the globalization of world economic processes. Tourism is becoming an essential sphere of human life which contributes to the restoration and development of Russia's labor potential and solution of a number of problems related to the challenges of the globalizing world, taking into account the latest technological breakthroughs. It’s becoming more obvious that further development of tourism should be based on deep fundamental inventions in those branches of knowledge where tourism is the incentive for further research and where it is the main consumer of new knowledge. In the XXI century, the formation of the system of vocational training in the world of science is becoming an important vector in the development of the national and world economy, as well as a significant socio-cultural phenomenon as a regional and international activity. The tourism sphere successfully forms its socio-pedagogical and cultural historical space. The article reveals the main problems of professional education in the sphere of tourism at the regional level.