摘要:This article provides a rationale for the significance and explores the characteristics of international tourism. The author establishes that this sector of the global economy has been developing in quite a sustainable fashion, without being affected by substantial differences between various regions around the world. The author discusses groups of stimulating factors and major trends in the development of international tourism at the current stage, including major changes in the tourism product and the operation of the global market of tourism services. The article defines the imperatives of modernizing the tourism industry at the national level.