This study is aimed at identifying the perspective tools of strategic management in general and strategic planning of VFR tourism (for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives) at the regional level in particular. It is based on dialectical and logical methods, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, the concrete historical and systemic approaches, which in their totality helped to reveal the key characteristics of VFR tourists arriving in the Stavropol region as well as to offer the author's model of the VFR tourism development strategy at the regional level. This paper substantiates the idea that VFR tourism is a very attractive and promising segment of the tourism market of Russia, despite the fact that the public authorities currently undertake no measures for its targeted development. This study is conducted in the framework of the project No. 2570 "Model of transformative (creative and innovative) management in self-regulating socio-economic systems including high school", performed in the context of the basic part of the public task in the field of scientific activities of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.