Management of tourist potential for indigenous territories

In modern context Russian tourism in general and ethno - cultural tourism in particular are not sufficiently developed to match extensive potential of the Russian regions. Nowadays successful regional policy in the field of tourism is rather an exception than a rule. The aim of this work is uniting municipal entities of Siberian republics into clusters with a certain potential for developing particular type of ethno - tourism. Typology of municipal entities is made by means of cluster analysis methods. As research objects the authors chose municipal areas in Buryatia, Tuva, Khakassia and Altay (56 municipal entities), which is determined by specific characteristics of the research. Based on visual presentation of results it was suggested that municipal regions form 7 natural clusters. This suggestion was tested by dividing initial data by means of average K method into 7 clusters. With the help of disperse analysis a high importance of differences between clusters was defined. Classification of the territories according to ethno - tourism development potential allows for: а) focusing efforts and resources on the most perspective territories from the point of view of tourism development; b) identify type of tourism, and target audience and therefore formulate marketing strategy for developing and promoting tourist product; c) improve efficacy of managerial decisions in choosing and supporting priority investment projects and applied regional instruments in the field of tourism development. We suggest using cluster analysis in defining perspective territories for more efficient use of republics potential in ethno-tourism. Authors prove that despite rich cultural heritage of Siberian poly-ethnic regions its use in development of tourism is hindered by several reasons, some of which are subjective and can be alleviated by altering regional tourism development strategies. For a better use of republics' potential in the field of ethno-tourism authors suggest using cluster analysis in defining perspective territories. Municipal regions of Siberian republics are united into clusters for which possible directions for tourism development are defined. Territories - growth points for cultural, educational, event, ecological, agricultural and aboriginal tourism types. Recommendations on implementing ethno-tourism potential in Siberian regions are given. © 15th European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance, ECMLG 2019. All rights reserved