The goal of the research is to study the risks and innovative benefits of distance learning. The main research method is an anonymous survey of academic staff (university teachers) and students (future philologists, foreign language teachers), based on the need to clarify the situation associated with the use of distance learning technologies in the conditions of the quarantine. The following data have been obtained in the course of the study: the most significant opportunities for distance learning, the level of satisfaction with distance learning technologies, the compliance with the previously drawn up training schedule in the distance learning conditions, the satisfaction with the promptness of informing about the training schedule, the use of distance learning technologies to provide feedback, the factors that affect the quality of the implementation of distance learning technologies, the teachers' positive experience of using distance learning technologies, the use of distance learning technologies when providing students with lecture materials, as well as the use of information resources of the institution by the students. The results of the study have revealed that both students and teachers are aware of the need to work in a distance learning environment, but the coronavirus pandemic has created new risks for the higher education system, which require an innovative approach to overcoming barriers in the distance learning system. The results of the article can be used in the organization of distance learning at a humanitarian university.

In recent years the educational system has opted to implement sustainable strategies that allow access, coverage, relevance, and quality of education. The University does not escape these realities combined and the need to generate a real impact on all its stakeholders. Thus, the challenge of training competent individuals to face the future is increasingly relevant. This research aims to reflect theoretically on the impact that Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility effectively have on quality university education. For which relevant theoretical elements have developed that support in the first instance the origins of sustainable development and social responsibility and the fundamental elements of each one of them and, in the second instance, it explains how these binomial favors quality, sustainable and relevant education. The method is served from the qualitative paradigm, documentary observation, and content analysis. Among the findings, it is found that education influences people and nations, which is why Universities must take on the challenge of responsible teaching. It is concluded that today higher education institutions are called to the teaching of excellence. In particular, training future specialists in the tourism and hospitality industry requires the approach when it is not enough to carry out substantive functions of the University: teaching, research, extension, and social projection, but they must be articulated with each other, to contextualize the student of the problems of the environment, sustainable development of the territory and how they can be solved.

Coronavirus pandemic and restrictive measures adopted by the authorities of many states have necessitated the massive transfer of employees of various organizations to remote forms of performing work duties. Such a transfer required a change in approaches to the organization of work and control over the performance of labor duties, which raised many questions and problematic points, both for employees and employers. The purpose of this study is to identify issues of an organizational and legal nature in the relationship between an employee and employer in connection with the forced massive transition to telework and the formation of proposals for resolving problematic aspects.

In modern conditions of development of tourism and hospitality industry and trends of import-substitution there is a need of training of heads of hotel complexes. Set conditions must be taken into account in the preparation of bachelors and masters on the course “Hospitality”. In this regard, the authors study and develop model of the process of preparation of competitive graduates, which identify the main directions of optimization of this process: the necessity of interaction with government agencies and the business community, the need to include in a comprehensive curriculum of preparation of bachelors and masters for the hospitality industry the requirements of employers, industry and corporate standards. In the article there is the analysis of new occupational standards and job functions managers of hotels and heads of departments and divisions of hotels, which show that the main common cultural and professional competences must be formed in the main areas of activities: resource management departments (departments) of the hotel complex; interaction with consumers and stakeholders; monitoring and evaluation of performance of departments (departments) of the hotel complex. Important role in the preparation of bachelors is given to the formation of competences in interpersonal and business communication, willingness to comply with standards of appearance, standards of hospitality and friendliness; ability to customer centricity. In the result of analysis there is proposed modular structure of the comprehensive program of bachelor “Hospitality”, a list of additional common cultural and professional competences, which are necessary to form a competitive graduate who is in demand on the market. The authors determine the main directions of preparation of masters, taking into account the necessity of formation of professional competence of top-managers that cannot only manage the hotel, but also the hotel chain.

Gastronomic tourism is a special form of cultural tourism, the main purpose of which is familiarity with a certain tourist product or a platter. Gastronomic tourism is working closely with many types of tourism, in particular with a tour, ethnographic, culinary and oenological. The organizational technology of gastro- nomic tourism involves many sectors of industry and agriculture. It should be noted that not all theorists of tourism and tourism professionals differentiate gastronomic tourism as an independent species. According to experts, tourists learn the products and dishes of this or that destination “de facto”, regardless of the purpose of the trip. It is difficult to accept, even because tourists engaged in certain types of tourism (health and fitness, sports tourism) are unable to break the dietary or diet, or to deviate from the diet. Meanwhile, the researches of the resource base for the organization of gastronomic tourism in Russia are practically not carried out. The article analyzes the role of gastronomic tourism as a promising direction of the economy experiences. The authors consider gastronomic tours as tours of senses (taste, tactile, olfactory and aesthetic). According to the authors, the foundation of gastronomic tourism makes culinary (food) brands. This category is like a means of promoting destinations, original card of regions. The authors describe the special role of the gastronomic brands in forming the image of the tourist areas, which are suitable for the development of gastronomic tourism; the authors attempt to classify product brands on various criteria. Finally, they make recommendations for the organizers of tourism on the use of product brands in the promotion and implementation of gastronomic tours, as well as executive bodies in charge of regulation of tourism at the municipal and federal levels.