Rating assessment of the agro-tourism potential of rural areas

Abstract

The main goal of the research is to improve the approaches to determining the agro-tourism potential of rural areas using the method of rating assessment. The methodology of the conducted research involves studying factors and conditions affecting the agro-tourism potential of rural areas and specifying the concept of agro-tourism potential; analysing existing methodologies for the assessment of tourism potential. During the analysis, we revealed weaknesses in existing methodologies and identified the directions for improvement of the approaches to assessing the potential of agro-tourism. Given the identified directions, the original rating assessment method of the agro-tourism potential in rural areas was developed, including the score system of the factors that underpin potential travellers' desire to purchase a proposed agro-tourist product and the factors, contributing to the successful economic implementation of the agro-tourism projects in rural areas. The methodology was tested on the example of the Omsk region municipal districts. With the results of the study, we rated municipal districts of the region by their attractiveness level for the development of agro-tourism and identified priority directions for the development of agro-tourism in the Omsk region. The obtained research results can be used to develop organization models of a regional agro-tourist cluster based on the specialization of certain rural areas in certain areas of the agrotourism development.