GREEN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN SMART COMMUNITIES

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to substantiate factors and mechanisms of development of green tourism and its consequences. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is the systematic synergistic approach to the study of socio-economic phenomena in rural areas under the influence of macroeconomic factors and local initiatives to increase their socio-economic potential through the practice of green tourism. The research used such methods as analysis and synthesis, comparison, and generalization. Historical and logical methods of scientific knowledge, expert evaluations, graphic, and averages are used. The abstract-logical method of research allowed, through theoretical generalizations, to determine the research tasks, to formulate the working hypothesis and conclusions. A survey was conducted on 800 rural residents aged 18-72, of which 56% were women and 44% were men from 6 regions of Ukraine, among which 20% were inhabitants of ecological and tribal settlements. The participants in the survey were persons under 35 years of age (26% of their total number), persons 35 to 55 years old (accounted for 47%), and 55 years and older (27%). Respondents having higher education were 28%, incomplete higher – 6%, secondary special – 30%, secondary – 33%, others – 3%. Respondents in the social sphere accounted for 30%, agriculture – 26%, pensioners – 23%, forestry – 3%, unemployed persons – 18%, which ensured the representativeness of the sample. The study period covered the years of 2013–2017. Results. As a result of the study, it was established that the development of green tourism is the basis of rational nature management and increasing the competitiveness of the regions through the formation of their investment and socio-environmental attractiveness. The subject of the study is a set of institutional, theoretical-methodological, methodological, and applied problems of the development of green tourism. The conditions and retrospective of tourism development are outlined, among which the priority is to increase the socio-economic activity of the territories with minimal investments of budgets of all levels and a high level of return on investments. The basic problems of the establishment of green (ecological tourism) are identified. The basic ones are the inadequacy of the quality and range of services provided at their prices, as well as the low level of professionalism of the persons providing tourist services. The factors that determine the activation of green tourism in Ukraine are determined. Of these, the development of generic settlements as catalysts of social change in the territory is decisive. Public organizations as institutions of social importance are the triggers of the activity. Practical implications. The practical significance of the research is to deliver a strategy for the development of green tourism in the united territorial communities. They will be able to make proposals for the legislative regulation of the of urban youth transfer to rural areas. Youth that will invest in rural areas and is ready to start their business. Value/originality. The uniqueness of the study is to present the experience of rural areas through the mechanism of Family Homestead, which provides for the provision of legislative rights to every citizen of Ukraine, if they wish to receive 1 hectare of land for the construction of a Family Homestead for lifetime use, free of charge, without the right to sell, with the right to transfer only by inheritance.