Rural Tourism: Diversification and Modernisation of Tourist Infrastructure (on the Materials of the Transcarpathian Region)

In modern conditions, one of the promising areas of diversification of the rural economy in the Transcarpathian region is the rapid development of rural tourism. This is largely due to the concentration of unique natural and climatic, historical, cultural, and national-ethnic resources in rural areas. The assigning of tourism as one of the important priorities of rural economic development in decentralisation has intensified research to study the main trends in rural local tourism markets, the efficiency of tourism and recreational resources, and the level of tourism infrastructure, the quality of which creates an integrated tourism product to meet needs of tourists. The research aims to analyse and assess the level of development of functional tourism infrastructure and its impact on the efficiency of local rural tourism markets, the quality of tourism services, and outline promising areas for its development. By the purpose of the article, considerable attention is paid to the analysis of the existing network of health resorts, tourist and recreational facilities that make up the material and technical base and infrastructure of tourism. Given that the most popular type of tourism in the region is rural green tourism, the paper clarifies the main factors that determine its rapid development. Much attention is paid to the analysis of factors that negatively affect the development of tourist infrastructure. It is proved that the weakest link in the infrastructure chain of the market of tourist services is the state of development of “soft” infrastructure. The perspective directions of the development of “soft” infrastructure of rural tourism are outlined, focusing on the development of innovation-institutional, innovation-organisational, information-communicative, and security components. It is proved that the development of “soft” tourist infrastructure is an important area of diversification and modernisation of the rural economy, which in combination with socio-mental modernisation can ensure sustainable development of rural areas of Transcarpathia