Tourism as a complex socio-economic phenomenon of our time, is still first of all a process of practice activity and has not yet received a final scientific understanding, what is manifested in the absence of appropriate scientific field. This is due to the «youth» of the phenomenon, not in vain called for its explosive growth of the «phenomenon of the twentieth century». And it explains the prevailing diversity of approaches to the understanding of tourism by the representatives of various sciences, which study it. This diversity is passed to the system of higher education, training staff for the tourism industry. This situation has negative aspects, often very serious. Program track «Tourism» is being implemented in different departments of universities (economic, sociological, historical, geographical, etc.), who independently develop curricula to support the decisions of the profile of the federal educational-methodical association and professional standards. Due to objective and subjective reasons cartographic literacy, basic for specialist tourism category, falls of the educational process in a number of universities, both at the undergraduate level and at the graduate level.