Monitoring of the Tourist-Recreational Activity of Specially Protected Natural Territories as an Effective Indicator of Predicted Development of Tourist Territories

Aim. The main aim is to determine the effectiveness of using the monitoring of tourist and recreational activities as an indicator in forecasting the development of a tourist territory using the example of specially protected natural areas of the Volgograd Region. Methods. In conducting this study, a number of scientific and practical methods were used, such as the method of processing and analyzing statistical data on the number of ecological paths and tourist routes in the natural parks of the Volgograd region as well as the method of geo-information processing of the collected data, the modeling of results and analysis of statistical data. Tourist flow data for the period from 2002 to 2016 was also used. Results. As a result of the research, it was revealed that the value of the indicator of the number of tourist routes in the natural parks of the Volgograd region is increasing annually. Among the entire range of tourist services provided by the natural parks of the region, car tours prevail. Analyzing the information on the visits to the natural parks, we can conclude that the services of the Eltonsky, Shcherbakovsky, Donskoy and Ust-Medveditsky natural parks are the most demanded by the consumer. Conclusions. Summarizing, we can conclude that there is no correlation between the increase in the number of tourist routes in natural parks and the increase in the number of tourists in the region’s protected areas. In this regard, it is necessary to develop a long-term strategy for the development of the tourist and recreational attractiveness of the protected areas of the Volgograd region.