Аннотация:The objectives of this study are to begin the open discussion about outbound tourism and to de-bunk the myth about outbound tourism as an unprofitable field of activity. The article deals with the problem of outbound tourism influence on the Balance of Payments and importance of out-bound tourism as a tool for economic development. The analysis of outbound tourism develop-ment takes into account the difference between a particular geographical area (country of ref-erence) and economy (economy of reference).