The article studies the role and significance of intellectual resources of the society in the establishment and development of the tourism and hospitality industry. From the theoretical and methodological point of view, the study shows the genesis of the key components of intellectual resources: intellectual capital, social capital, intangible assets; the principal methods for assessing the performance of using intellectual resources and the specific aspects of managing business processes where the resources are used are systemized. The main trends and patterns of tourism development in Russia and one of its regions (the Tula region) are highlighted. The authors consider the options of using intellectual resources in the tourism and hospitality industry taking the Tula region as an example. An extrapolatory analysis of the main tendencies of tourism development has been made, the Tobin's Q ratio has been calculated, which shows the level of using intellectual resources in the hotel business, and the transformational opportunities of using place branding to increase the attractiveness and competitiveness of locations have been identified.