The paper defines a heuristic task to formulate and approve methodological provisions on the system diagnostics and monitoring of the socio-economic and tourist potential of peripheral territories in the regions which are the basis for planning and implementing spatial and economic transformations. This area of scientific and methodological research and development is relevant because of the need for searching reserves for the advancement of territories based on the inventory taking and the fullest use of available resource opportunities. In this regard, the article has improved the organizational and methodological approaches to conduct monitoring as a part of a comprehensive system diagnostics of peripheral territories of the region based on analytical criteria for socio-economic and tourist potential. The authors formulated a semantic and economic interpretation of the findings and outlined the prospects for using them when forming socio-economic development policy of regions and their economy sectors. The scientific novelty of the present article consists in development of elements of system research and diagnostic methodology with respect to development potential of peripheral areas, based on the analysis of the socio-economic and tourism factors. The combination of results and recommendations represents a contribution to the scientific substantiation of spatial and sectoral analysis.

The article summarizes the results of the analysis of the causes of fragmentation, dissociation, and polarization of the economic space of rural territories, primarily the southern regions of Russia, which are the leading agricultural and industrial regions of the country (Rostov region, Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai), determines the impact of infrastructure deficits, conventionality of farming for the outflow of economically active population to areas with a higher level of competitive advantages, determines the need to align the development of rural territories, primarily through the formation and development of poles of economic growth of the “second order”, which should serve as intermediate links for leveling the discreteness of economic space of agricultural and industrial regions. The author considers a set of innovative measures that contribute to the generation of impulses for the development of rural territory economy and transformation of their economic space towards depolarization and the elimination of “dissociation”, which is the key to increase the economic potential of the agro-industrial complex (its resource, agricultural and raw material, processing and production components), increase of its functioning efficiency, which is especially important for the agricultural and industrial regions of Russian South.