The Natural Tourist and Recreational Potential of the Rivers of the Republic of Belarus: The Methodology of a Comprehensive Full-Scale Assessment, Profiling Uses and Limiting Factors

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive multi-scale assessment of the natural tourism and recreational potential of the rivers of Belarus, which allowed to identify the profiling types of water recreation and tourism, as well as their limiting factors. The methodological basis for the study and assessment of the natural tourist and recreational potential of rivers was the conceptual model of the tourist and recreational assessment of the natural potential of rivers, the methodology of the integrated tourist and recreational assessment of the natural potential of rivers, based on the structure of the types of its tourist and recreational use of rivers and the system of differentiated target indicators in their context, developed on the basis of the principles ecological and technical safety, physiological and climatic comfort and landscape and aesthetic attractiveness. The approbation of the system of target indicators in the context of the types of tourists and recreational use of the natural potential of rivers allowed for its comprehensive assessment, which is a multimedia effect from the integration of a triplex of biomedical, technological, and psychological-aesthetic types of assessment. The obtained quantitative results of a comprehensive tourist and recreational assessment of the natural potential of rivers at a multi-scale level (plot – percentage of plots in the region – percentage of plots in the country) allowed to identify the profile of their tourist and recreational use and the genesis of their limiting factors, as well as to carry out their geographical interpretation, which allowed to establish patterns and features of their placements at different spatial levels. As a result of a comprehensive assessment, three groups of limiting factors were identified for all types of tourists and recreational use at the regional level: general, special, and individual, while for amateur fishing and amateur hunting there are only two groups represented by general and special. As a result of a comprehensive assessment of the natural tourism and recreational potential of rivers in a multi-scale format, its geographical patterns and features were determined, which allowed creating a basis for developing a strategy for the development of aquatic tourism on the rivers of Belarus as one of the promising areas of domestic tourism in the complex epidemiological conditions of the modern stage.