The article is dedicated to the analysis of the creative industries as an instrument for a creative city “construction” and innovational environment creation. The objects of the study are the concept of “creative city” that was proposed in the late 70-s by British culturologist Charles Landry and also the market of the creative industries that actively grows in many countries of the world nowadays. The aim of the work is to study the phenomena of “creative city” and “creative industries” by analyzing their development in theory and practice and also to assess the economic efficiency of the latter on the industry level. In her work, the author used the methods of the collection and analysis of the information from studies, scientific articles, periodicals, reports of public authorities of various countries, The United Nations’ reports, regulatory documents, state programs, interviews with the representatives of different industries etc. The research has resulted in identification of a number of peculiarities in the creative industries development in Russia and abroad, and also in identification of the existing obstacles of the active growth of this economic sector in our country. The author concludes that a successful entrepreneurship requires an extensive governmental support, such as, for instance, preparation of a document on the mapping of creative industries; formation of the statistics, creation of a special authority regulating the work of creative industries on the federal level and much more.