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Rural tourism in the south of Russia
Section 8. Regional studies and socio-economic geography
Volkova Tatiana Aleksandrovna, Kuban State University, Associate Professor, Department of International Tourism and Management
E-mail: mist-next4@inbox.ru
Rural tourism in the south of Russia
Abstract: Introduction of elements of tourism activities will enable primarily to increase sales volumes rural households through the sale of tourist arrivals. Tourist activity in the modern village could be, and include visits to farmsteads in the program of tours, or organizing day trips from nearby resort areas of the province.
Keywords: agro-tourism, farmhouse, rural tourism, recreation, nature management, Krasnodar region, tourist and recreational complex.
One of the directions of recreational activity in the world is agro-tourism or rural tourism. The main peculiarity of development of the Russian market of agro-tourism is the fact that it develops practically without centralized management. At the moment, the issues of legal provisions of this kind of business activity, economic issues and the issues of financial support of the process, i. e. the systems of crediting and tax benefits etc. have not been developed, are not solved. The development of rural tourism is genetically related to rural area.
As it is known, the term “rural area” is based on the very characteristics that distinguish this territory from urban area, such as: the size of inhabited settlements, consistency rate of settlements, dominating industries, population density, labor structure, population’s life style, its mentality and traditions etc. Thus, rural area can be defined as a territorial system that corresponds to certain numeric criteria of population displacement (established at a national level) and is distinguished by predominant development of agriculture as the main sphere of population’s labor as well as by spread of rural life style.
With regard to landscape, the rural area is characterized by dominating agricultural landscapes. Rural tourism is an independent kind of tourism based on special forms of leisure activities (for instance, taking care of domestic animals, tasting dishes of local cuisine, walks and picnics in rural area) and motivation of improvement of tourist trips (acquainting oneself with rural area and rural life style). The kinds of tourism directly related to rural area may include: recreational, active, cognitive and ecologically consumer-oriented, gastronomic tourism, ethnographic tourism, activities at farmhouses and fruit and vegetable gardens etc.
The most economically profitable kind of rural tourism should combine the elements of several above listed items.
In this case, it will not just be a visit to large agricultural enterprises by tourists, which is also possible but cannot be a concurrent source of income, but a visit to farmhouses and rural households. A household is a group of people residing in one premises or its part that jointly provide food and all life necessities, i. e. partly or fully combining or spending their means. These people can be relatives or be in a relationship arising from marriage, or not be relatives, or both [3; 4].
The implementation of the elements of tourist activity will enable to increase the volumes of realization of products of rural farmhouses at the expense of sales to arriving tourists. Today, three groups of farmhouses almost equal in terms of size, where different attitude to small commodity production is observed, can be distinguished in the rural area. One of them, comprising the first group, refuses the production of agricultural products. It happens due to total incapability (one should remember that 20-25 % of rural households consist of singles or elderly married couples) or due to the reason of prosperity and ability to buy food in the market (5 %) [1].
Also, this group includes households located in the suburbs of big cities, where the availability of labor market dominates the availability of sales market. The second group of households is rather oriented to natural consumption than market when it comes to product manufacture. In such families, a wage is the main, and most importantly, stable and growing source of income. It is typical for territories that are promising from the point of development of large agricultural goods producers who use hired labor widely (Krasnodar region, Belgorod region etc.). The third group consists of households that strengthen their orientation to the market and small commodity production. In this households, the relative share of income from sales of household products accounts for steady 50 % or more. In the territorial scale, such
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Section 8. Regional studies and socio-economic geography
households are inclined to local markets of small and midsize towns (district centers). The examples are Labinsk and the village of Kuschevskaya in Krasnodar region, Shadrinsk in Kurgan region etc [1].
The households of all these groups could include the elements of tourist activity in their business. It is especially relevant for the households of the first and second groups. Tourist activity in the conditions of a modern village could include a visit to household in the program of excursion tours or organization of one-day excursions from nearby resort districts of the region. Organization of weekend tours with a short-time accommodation of tourists is also possible. The idea of organization and conduct of events on the territories of rural households (weddings, parties, corporate events) would be relevant. Everything listed above should be combined with tasting of local products, realization of souvenirs and consumer-oriented goods.
Rural tourism in modern conditions can combine the elements of recreational, active, cognitive, consumer-oriented, gastronomic and ethnographic tourism. However, organization of tourist activity in the conditions of households is presently limited with a number of problems: absence of a good infrastructure; poverty; passive nature and economic incompetence of rural population; lack of cultural level; loss of traditions and handicraft skills; lack of opportunities for teaching handicrafts and development of own business to people; insufficient involvement of all interested parties in the process of agro-tourism; lack of a unified information base and ground for experience exchange etc.
The main goal of organization and development of agricultural tourism is the increase of life standards for rural population at the expense of organization of new jobs, increase of prestige of rural living, development of general infrastructure in villages — roads, transport, water and gas supply, trade etc., as well as increase of investment attractiveness of a village. The development of tourist activity in the conditions of rural area plays an important role from the socio-economic point of view.
The importance ofrural tourism lies in the following points:
- recreation of city dwellers in rural area, obtaining knowledge about traditional folk culture;
- movement of financial means from cities to rural areas;
- creation of alternative sources of labor for rural population;
- increase of the level of economic profitability for rural population;
- reduction of the process of migration of rural dwellers to cities;
- formation of sales markets for agricultural products and items of folk craft;
- development of infrastructure on the rural territories;
- preservation of natural and cultural resources of the territory;
- reduction of social tension in the rural area.
At the same time, one should keep it in mind that agrotourism is not a highly profitable business and the main goal of rural tourism is to improve the life standards ofrural population.
The development of agro-tourism should stimulate local economy by way of formation of small economic turnovers of local resources. It can be achieved by initiating inter-industrial cooperation, when local products and services are used in the production of a tourist product. Today, there are plenty of issues on organization of activity in the sphere of agro-tourism and one of them is: how to organize the accounting of such activity appropriately. Krasnodar region is more attractive for the development of agro-tourism than other regions of Russia due to its agro-climatic resources and well-developed transport system [2].
But, at present, the development of agro-tourism in the region lags behind the all-Russia one. From the position of the state, it is reasonable to define the priorities of agrotourism development concentrating on the most valuable resources of the country and emphasizing the so-called points of growth. It is important to study market situation from all sides and reveal the opportunities and risks that this kind of business may face.
References:
1. Volkova T. A., Mischenko A. A. Problems and prospects of rural tourism development in Krasnodar region.//Science and education in modern society: vector of development. Collection of scientific works based on the materials of the International scientific-practical conference: in 2 parts. - LLC “AR-Consult”, 2014. - P. 61-63.
2. Volkova T. A., Zadorozhnyaya V. V Tourist activity in the conditions of a modern village.//Resort-recreational complex in the system of regional development: innovative approaches. - 2011. - № 1. - P. 359-363.
3. Poltoratsky V. V. Rural Russia: priorities of development. - M.: Pokoleniye, 2009.
4. Number and composition of households. Results of the all-Russia census of population. - 2002. - Vol. 6. - M.: FSGS, 2005.
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