TEXTBOOK «TOURIST COUNTRY STUDIES» AS A MEANS OF CROSSCULTURAL TRAINING OF FUTURE SPECIALISTS OF THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

Abstract

The article describes the content of the textbook «Tourist Country Studies» as a means of cross-cultural training of future specialists in the field of tourism. It was found out that studying the discipline «Tourist Country Studies» contributes to the expansion of students’ outlooks, increases the theoretical level, stimulates self-knowledge, since it gives an opportunity to understand the specifics of tourism in each region of the world, taking into account its historical, national and cross-cultural characteristics. Principal development of the conceptual foundations of the modern textbook on the subject «Tourist Country Studies» as a means of cross cultural training of students should be based on three of its main functions: informational, educational and cross-cultural. It is determined that the following principles are the basis of constructing the content of the textbook on the subject «Tourist Country Studies», namely: the principle of integrated education; the principle of interdisciplinarity of knowledge; the principle of the five «A»; the principle of conformity of the content of educational material with the requirements of society, science, practice and personality; the principle of relevance; problem-searching principle. The author presents a textbook «Tourist Country Studies» (2015) — one of the first fundamental textbooks in Ukraine, in which tourism-country studies are considered as the basis for creating a tourist image of the country, and tourism as a factor in the globalization of the modern world. The first part of the textbook highlights the theoretical foundations of the tourism field studies, in particular the processes of institutionalization, the basic principles of the spatial and territorial organization of the countries of the world, understanding and taking into account their political, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity, which appears as a methodological and methodological basis for studying tourism resources and potential opportunities of these countries, as well as for the formation of cross-cultural competence of future specialists in the field of tourism. The second part describes the characteristics of the resources of the major macro-regions and countries that are leaders in the regional development of tourism. Each section is accompanied by key concepts and terms, control questions and tasks, recommended literature, interesting illustrative material.