Methodological Approaches to Studying the Impact of Demographic Factors on the Development of Rural Tourism in the Odesa Region

Problem Statement and Purpose. In modern conditions, the role of demographic processes has increased, especially in rural areas. One of the options for rural development according to the “Concept of Rural Development” is to create conditions for the development of various types of economic activities and forms of management, including the development of tourist and recreational activities in rural areas. The purpose of the article is to provide a spatial assessment of the localization of resource potential for the development of rural tourism within the Odesa region. Data & Methods. The theoretical basis of the research is the fundamental provisions of economic and social geography, the works of domestic and foreign scientists on the study of rural tourism in the system of economic development of rural territories of Ukraine. The research methodology is based on traditional methods of economic and geographical analysis, such as: system-structural, comparative-geographical, cartographic, extrapolation method, typing method, logical. Results. The study combines population density and depopulation intensity by territorial communities in several stages, identifies rural recreation areas and compares them with the above-mentioned demographic indicators. It can be noted that the intensity of depopulation increases with distance from the agglomeration centers of Odesa, Izmail and Podilsk, which in turn form recreational and tourist flows to rural areas. The regional recreational system of the Odesa region has its own specific features. Areas of rural tourism have a topological link in the territorial space to regional hydrographic objects, the Black Sea coast, woodlands in the north of the region, and also take into account the specifics of the life of individual ethno-cultural communities Bulgarians, Moldovans, Gagauz, Old Believers. The basis of rural recreation includes 27 units of attraction, which are compactly localized in the territories of the following territorial communities. The areas of rural recreation stretch from west to east along the sea coast, around the Dniester, Kuyalnytskyi, Hadzhibeysky and Tiligul estuaries. In the northern direction, the areas of rural recreation are located extremely dispersed, while having in its arsenal a powerful recreational resource center – Podilsk. At the same time, in the north of the Odesa region, the demographic situation is deteriorating, most of the territorial communities of the Podilsk district are characterized by intensive depopulation. The four types of subregional homogeneous units identified show a complex relationship between rural population density, intensity of depopulation processes, level of anthropogenic and technogenic load, and spatial organization of recreational potential.