ABSTRACT
The paper deals with serious challenges that Russian tourism industry faces: the reduction in outbound tourism, inability of the industry to be redirected to inbound tourism, problems of human resources. Consumers are looking for authentic experiences such as local gastronomic traditions. The research analyses the current situation of inbound tourism in Russia, particularly of Russian gastronomic tourism. For this purpose, the dialectical approach to the analysis of the results of an opinion poll held among the students of Moscow universities studying Tourism and Travel Management is applied. The paper identifies the causes of problems divided into four groups. This analysis contributes to the solution of the problems and promotion of an active development of the inbound gastronomic tourism in Russia. The obtained results underline the correlation between gastronomic inbound tourism and the professional development of Gastronomy Travel Managers. It is concluded that gastronomic tourism management should be incorporated as a subject of study in Tourism and Travel Management programs.
