The article analyzes the theoretical basis and features of practical-oriented approaches to the implementation of the competence approach in the preparation and professional development of specialists in the sphere of tourism; the notion of interdependence of professionalism and a competitive tourist specialist are comprehended and disclosed; the priority directions of professionalization’s success directions of the tourism sphere specialist are distinguished; methods of forming professional standards based on a competence approach in the system of education and professional formation of tourism experts are presented; the conclusion has been substantiated, that the competence approach is the dominant factor of professional activity success’s realization of a tourism specialist at the present stage.