Theory Of Compromise Solutions As Effective Tool For Improving Regional Tourism Sphere

Abstract

The article attempts to apply the theory of compromise solutions to improve tourist systems functioning. In modern conditions, different approaches to management are becoming vital. Today, the concept of management is becoming one of the basic ones, which may well be attributed to the tourism industry. In the modern world, it is necessary to revise the decision-making mechanisms for tourist systems management. Compromise appears to be an effective tool with this regard. The definition of the concept “compromise” in the tourist system benefits finding a solution for the sustainable functioning of the territorial system. The tourist system cannot function in isolation while being a part of a more complexly organized territorial system. It is characterized by “inputs” and “outputs”, and any attempt to pursue a monosyllabic tourism policy to maintain and develop the tourism industry can lead to a loss of balance of economic sustainability. The tourist system is a part of a more unified regional system. The theory of making compromise decisions can become a very fruitful and effective tool for the geographical analysis of a regional system.

Keywords: tourism, management, compromise theory, decision making, tourism system, territorial system

Introduction

Today, the concept of management is becoming one of the basic ones, which may well be adherent to the tourism industry. The stage of management is diverse. It is possible to highlight its main stages:

a) information collection and processing;

b) analysis;

c) diagnosis and prognosis;

d) synthesis and goal setting;

e) finding a solution for goal achievement;

f) consistent specification of the decisions taken;

g) planning, design and development of specific management solutions;

h) decisions implementation;

i) control over implementation.

The dilemma of management is manifold and is manifested and solved in different ways in various spheres of human activity (Zinovieva et al., 2018). Moreover, management problems in the tourism sector are even more specific. The uniqueness of the tourism sector is that it is directly or indirectly related to more than thirty areas of the national economy (Rodoman, 2002).

Thus, we can conclude that the coordination of sectoral and territorial interests is one of the most important management problems in the tourism sector.

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Any attempt to pursue an extraordinary sectoral (tourism) policy based solely on local conditions is unreasonable both scientifically and practically.

Therefore, the tourist system is part of a more unified regional system. Emphasizing a subsystem implies introducing boundaries that ultimately do not exist. One system transforms into another continuously, clear boundaries between them are rather an exception than a rule (Figure 01).

Similarly, the tourist subsystem in the regional system can be reflected as the complexity of such elements as nature, population and economy formed as a process of interaction of natural and socio-economic subsystems, subject to their own laws of functioning and development.

Problem Statement

The topic of the study is stipulated by the fact that the tourism sector, which is understood not only as tourism activity itself, but also as the entire complex of industries and types of labor associated with it is a promising factor in regional economy development. Tourism being a socio-economic phenomenon combines the market aspects of economic relations and socially oriented goals of society development (Lipets & Shlikhter, 1997). Tourism, on the one hand, evolves on the basis of increased leisure time, improvement of the population quality of life, growth of the service sector in general, and, on the other hand, is a powerful catalyst for the development of the regional economic complex.

Tourism development stimulates the related industries origination, contributes to an increase in the standard of living of the population, generates employment, increases income in the economy and budget of the region, contributes to the preservation of natural and cultural heritage. Therefore, one of the tasks of regional authorities is to develop comprehensive programs for the development of the tourism sector as a component and factor in the growth of the regional socio-economic complex. This is especially important for Tatarstan being a region with unique opportunities for the development of the tourist and recreational sphere (Shabalina et al., 2014). The rich cultural and natural potential allows the republic to win considerable positions in the world tourism market under the terms of an active regional policy in the field of tourism development.

Research Questions

The first question is to substantiate the method of forming a local/regional tourism policy in order to harmonize the interests of economic entities;

The second question, is to study the compromise as a form of social interaction attaining insignificant equilibrium state in the system achieved through joint concessions.

Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of the study is to develop the main directions of local/regional tourism policy aimed to harmonize the interests of economic entities.

Similarly, cooperation in the system can be interpreted as the result of the desire of multiple elements and hierarchical levels to ensure the least possible disagreement between the real positions of their existence and the desirable ones dictated by their interests.

The nature of the disagreement of interests indicates their peculiarities of interaction (Sharygin, 1992). Consequently, an attempt to find a compromise that to one degree or another suits all conflicting parties may be reasonable from all perspectives. The solution to this algorithm has two aspects: tactical and strategic. The first is interconnected with the coordination of the formed interests, the second – with the management of interests’ formation benefiting their convergence.

The interests of the multiple levels of the hierarchy differ. However, as a result they all come down to the motivation of the fullest satisfaction of the material and spiritual needs of society. An unconditional example of a clash of interests is the situation, when the total need for a resource exceeds its availability (Mazhar, 2008; Zorin & Kvartalnov, 2002). A conflict arises among the consumers of a scarce resource, but its solution tentatively presupposes the formulation of a compromise quality criterion expressed in prioritization. Then, in this case, the coordinating nature of the highest level of the hierarchy in relation to the lower levels is justified.

The territory of the region includes not only space but also the totality of natural resources, population and material, and technical environment of its habitation, etc. (Shabalina & Trofimov, 2009; Gabdrakhmanov et al., 2014). Branches act as objects located on a given territory and using its components. The following contradictions arise from this dialectical existence:

1) territory and industries are understood as available and used within the studied system with regards to the attitude to territorial resources (labor, natural, recreational, infrastructure, etc.);

2) between the territory being a prerequisite and factor for the formation of the settlement system and the system of productive forces, on the one hand, and the tourism industry as a carrier of functions, on the other;

3) between the inertia of a known territory and the relative dynamism of industries, which is based on the unequal duration of the reproduction cycles of the territory’s resources, on the one hand, and production cycles, on the other;

4) the territory and industry in the field of management can be considered as an object and subject of management. This contradiction manifests itself in two aspects being functional and spatial;

5) due to the different regional specificity of the territory and industries, in particular, the production of goods and services;

6) in the interests of the territory, in its striving for greater completeness, on the one hand, and the disunity of the interests of industries, on the other hand;

7) the discrepancy between the stability of the territory and the mobility of industries, the possibility of their relocation due to changes in the territorial distribution of resources caused, for example, by their exhaustion or the identification of new sources.

Research Methods

If we imagine that the tourist system is formed on a specific territory (the Republic of Tatarstan), ultimately, the interaction of qualitatively different formations being natural and on a par with socio-economic, then undoubtedly the interactions found in the exchange of information as well as energy determine its further formation, functioning and development with emergent properties (Zorin & Kvartalnov, 2002).

The public need for interests is one of the important motives of social and economic activity and is reflected as an expression of the attitude of the bearers of interests to the conditions of their stay, position and role in social relations (Shabalina et al., 2015).

Quite the opposite, they can be expressed in the form of needs (material or non-material) depending on the conditions of existence. This enables to clarify the role of interests in the development of our society.

The method for the study of interaction processes in the tourist system based on the concept of the interests of their components gives the potential for meaningful analysis and explanation of interaction models.

In fact, the place and role of an individual element of the tourist system is justified by its position in a certain structure, then its functions and interests may not coincide in the aggregate, which in most cases happens in real life (Figure 02).

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Thus, we can conclude that two types of contradictions caused by divergence of interests can be identified in the tourism system. The first one is the discrepancies between the functions and interests of the elements fixed by the ratio of the immanent and emergent properties of the system. The second one is the divergence associated with competition as a result of the consumption of matter, information and energy (Haggett & Skopin, 2005). Anything that falls under the mismatch of interests can be viewed as a conflict, and its resolution is a process of coordination being a kind of compromise among the bearers of interests.

Findings

Interests are a point of view (when interests are not realized by their owners) about a state that is predominantly preferable from certain positions. Immanent (local) interests are the element’s worldview about the state that is most preferable for it in view of its most piercing internal properties and the specificity of the perception of external conditions.

Emergent (global) interests are the representations of a much higher level of the hierarchy about the state that is most advantageous for the lower levels of the hierarchy in accordance with the meaning and purpose of the supersystem in the aggregate. Emergent interests for elements of each hierarchical level appear in the form of their functions, which determine their place in the system.

Conflict is any dissimilarity of interests. Reconciliation of interests is the result of reaching a compromise in the system by determining the content and magnitude of mutual concessions of the conflicting parties as well as a compromise being the result of this process.

Compromise is a process of reconciliation of interests that has an insignificant equilibrium state in the system, achieved through joint concessions (Trofimov, 1989; Tregubova et al., 2018).

These are the main dialectical contradictions of the territory and industries that act as a driving force for the development of territorial-sectoral systems. At the same time, their most obvious dominant aspect is the differences in attitudes towards resources and regional orientation.

The main stages in the development of territory-industry relations are as follows: difference, polarization, collision and resolution (compromise). The recognition of the existence of contradictions between the territory and the industry as an internal source of territorial-sectoral systems development leads to the viewpoint that the proportionality (balance) of the territorial-production system should be considered primarily as the goal of territorial (regional) development. Each resolution of contradictions results in a certain increase in the balance of the regional system. However, new contradictions simultaneously arise and polarize with the transition of the system to a new qualitative state since the very concept of balance changes significantly.

Conclusion

The dilemma of managing territorial and sectoral needs is directly related to the method of economic mastery of the territory, its natural and socio-economic conditions. It is primarily shown through the sectoral structure of the economy. There is no doubt that the complex of natural and socio-economic positions of the territory plays an incredible role in the formation of its economic type but it never determines it unambiguously because there is a critical factor external to the territory (region) being a place in the territorial division of labor requiring external functions of a given territory (region). It is reasonable that these functions determine one of the main proportions of the economy of the region (territory). As a result, a conflict is revealed among the functions and interests of a geographic object, and otherwise a conflict of interests arises at different levels of the hierarchy.

Accordingly, the theory of making compromise decisions can become a very fruitful and effective tool for the geographical analysis of the regional system.

Acknowledgments [if any]

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