The development of ecological (green) and rural tourism for the disabled people in Ukraine

Abstract

The research is devoted to analysis of the development of ecological (green) and rural tourism for the disabled people in Ukraine. For solving the set task the following inves- tigation methods were used in the work: dialectical method, analysis and synthesis (research of existing ecological and rural routes by the territory of national natural parks of the regions of Ukraine), graphical method (for illustration of the results of the research); systematic-structural and expert analysis (for definition of priority routes of ecological (green) and rural tourism for the disabled participants and victims of the antiterrorist operation, people with disabilities, disabled children and elderly persons). The modern state of the development of ecological (green) and rural tourism in the regions of Ukraine was studied in the research. The role of the urbanization level in the demand formation for ecological (green) and rural tourism and interrelation between the urbanization and state of the environment was defined. The number of people with different forms of disability by the regions of Ukraine was investigated. Also, the number of the disabled persons among participants and victims of the antiterrorist operation (ATO) was analysed. A survey was conducted among people with disabilities on the priority and need to ensure the use of different types of tourism for people with disabilities. The current and promising routes of ecological (green) and rural tourism for disabled participants and victims of the anti-terrorist operation, people with disabilities, disabled children and elderly persons were analysed and unresolved issues of free access to tourist routes for people with disabilities were determined. The leading regions of Ukraine for the development of ecological (green) and rural tourism for people with disabilities were identified. A kind of ecological (green) and rural tourism with treatment and rehabilitation effect – animal therapy and development of its various methods (apitherapy, hippotherapy, canistherapy, enotherapy) in the regions of Ukraine was analysed. Potential opportunities, availablerecreational resources and prospects for the development of ecological (green) and rural tourism in the industrial Zaporizhzhia region were investigated. The directions of the tourist routes adaptation to the needs of people with disabilities through the formation of a barrier-free space were defined.