The article considers the prospects for innovative development of water transport in the field of river tourist transportation, proposed on the basis of the use of foreign experience, determines the scope of implementation of a potential innovative transport project and quantifies the possible economic effect. The purpose of the research is to determine the ways of organizing tourist river transportation using innovations to achieve a multiplicative effect in the development of the economy of small towns in the coastal zone. As the main research methods, the authors identified: analytical method, observation, abstraction and generalization. The result of the study is the justification of the need to apply innovations in the economic development of river transport in order to optimize transport flows within the country and the development of the economy of small towns located on the route of passenger ships, as a multiplier effect of the development of domestic tourism.