INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE DESTINATION COMPETITIVENESS.

This article presents the main research results of the needs of the Russian tourist destinations in the development of friendly projects. Since 2014 there have been significant structural changes in the structure of inbound tourism in Russia. The greatest growth often shows the tourist flows from the countries of the Asian and Pacific region. Practice of information search, choice, and behaviour in the visit of tourists from these regions are different from the habits of the Russian and European tourists. It is obvious that behavioural characteristics are determined with cultural and religious values and norms. In these circumstances, the ability of destinations to offer the tourist product which would be not only interesting but also comfortable, safe, and which would not violate the religious and cultural values, as well as would be relevant to the spiritual needs, becomes one of the key competitive factors and the significant advantage. The authors analyse the successful experience of China friendly and Halal friendly Standard, which are built on the factor of intercultural communication. These programs, as Russian experience demonstrates, are aimed solely at the adaptation of tourist services to the needs of tourists in cultural diversity terms. Taking into account the world experience, it's necessary to develop such additional program items. It means to inform the local community about the cultural and religious peculiarities in the tourists' behaviour, as well as to inform travelling tourists about cultural and religious peculiarities of Russia and its individual regions. The authors present the basis of new friendly-projects development, as well as the forecast of the number of tourism industry participants of these projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]