Rural Tourism as a Factor of Diversification of the Rural Economy

Abstract

Modern methods for assessing the efficiency of agricultural production do not allow a comprehensive assessment of the one-time economic, social and environmental effect of the development of rural tourism. At the same time, rural tourism is an integral factor in the diversification of the agricultural economy. It is rural tourism that is an effective tool for the sustainable development of rural areas and the progressive triune balance of the environmental, economic and social blocks of development. Currently, there is an urgent need for the formation of unified criteria for classifying a particular object that sells tourism services in rural areas as a rural tourism object. If these criteria are available, it will be possible to categorize homogeneous objects and plot objects on the map. Thus, a potential consumer will have a real opportunity to use the services of rural tourism facilities, and the mechanism for introducing this direction will become clear. From the point of view of state regulation of the processes of scaling rural tourism, with the categorization and mapping of objects, the constituent entities of the Russian Federation will be able to regulate their socio-economic development. In our research, we developed a template for a unified document for a rural tourism facility, taking into account the current stage of development of rural tourism in Russia, as well as the level of involvement of regions in the sustainable tourism development agenda. The criteria for assessing sustainable tourism include indicators of infrastructure development, economics, ecology, society, and safety, which in turn affect the total multiplier effect of tourism activities on related industries. Analysis of passport templates for rural tourism objects in the context of federal districts made it possible to identify the relationship between the development of rural tourism and the development of rural areas, namely: job creation, increasing the level of education and income of the population, and developing the infrastructure of the territory adjacent to the object. Jobs are created not only in the agricultural organization, but also in related industries. The local cultural and agricultural heritage is preserved, and the ecology and biodiversity of rural areas is maintained. The highest level of multiplier effect is observed in the Volga, Southern and Central Federal Districts, and is less pronounced in the Northwestern and Siberian Federal Districts.