The article discusses the experience of existence the historical cities as centers of tourism development through the example of Elabuga. The Elabuga is one of the historical cities of Russia. A crucial role in the city’s development as a tour-ism center plays Elabuga state historical-architectural and art museum-reserve. The article is focused on the Elabuga as a medium-size historic city. The subject of study is the work of the museum-reserve, contributing to the preservation and development of the city’s historical character and improving its tourist attractiveness. Tourist attraction of the city is determined primarily by the presence of well-preserved historic city center with neighborhoods of holistic development of the XIX century. Elabuga state historical-architectural and art museum-reserve was found in 1989. Currently it is the object of historical and cultural heritage of federal importance. The museums with their large territories and rich historical, cultural and natural heritage have unique resources for the implementation of major partnership projects. Such projects are aimed not only at attracting a wide range of tourists, but also stimulating interest of the business elite, municipal and regional authorities to the reserve. The most famous example is the revival in 2008 of Elabuga Spasskaya fair. It was held in the city since the second half of the XIX century and was widely known throughout Russia. The process of the revival and the successful development of the fair can be seen as the creation of special tourist events, contributing to the creation of new tourism products.

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The article for the first time provides a holistic analysis of the development of cultural tourism in the Republic of Tatarstan (RT): marks positive results, gives constraints factors of the tourism industry development in the country, offers authorial solutions. The subject of the article is caused by the fact that the cultural tourism is one of the priority types of tourism industry in the country and understanding of the need to find new forms of organization of work with tourists. The work is based on the method of analysis and synthesis, which allows to analyze the state of cultural tourism in the country, to identify the factors that influence its development. Deductive method, used by researchers in the study of tourism in a particular region, helps to identify the reasons for limiting the genesis of individual tourism industries and allows us to offer new forms of work. The results of the study led to the following conclusions: the successful development of cultural tourism in the Republic of Tatarstan is provided with the support of public authorities; the region’s development shows positive results in the hotel services, transport services, educational policy, promotional activities, contributing to the growth of cultural tourism in the country; the creation of new tour routes, making it possible to show features of the traditional culture of the Tatars, will contribute to the promotion of tourism development in the region; to improve the cultural tourism services quality can provide greater support to attract residents (residents). In the study, the authors relied on the research of specialists in the study of tourism features in the regions: Rostov-on-Don (A. V. Babkin), Nizhny Novgorod region (O. S. Kraynova), the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria (A. V. Thagapsov). The authors used as a source of State Program for tourism development in the Republic of Tatarstan "Development of tourism and hospitality in the Republic of Tatarstan for 2014-2020".