TRENDS AND PROSPECTS OF RURAL GREEN TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHERN REGION OF UKRAINE

A. Kravchuk, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of Accounting and Taxation Department of Odessa State Agrarian University, Odessa, Ukraine ORCID 0000400024526242894 A. Sakun, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor, Kherson State Agricultural University Kherson, Ukraine ORCID 0000400024091044055 T. Gakal, mаstеr's dеgrее, Kherson State Agricultural University, Kherson, Ukraine ORCID 000040002400064179X


PROBLEM STATEMENT
The versatility of an agricultural country provides significant opportunities for the development and capacity utilization of the rural environment to meet the needs of a wide range of consumers. Rural areas are attractive not only for using the main resource of our country -land as the basis of the agrarian and food business, but also for recreational rest of a modern person. Green tourism is a relatively young destination in the tourism business, with underdeveloped infrastructure and low level of use of its opportunities. The urbanization of the modern life of the population continues to create negative consequences for the development of rural territories. This is mainly reflected in the outflow of the population, the decline and aging of housing infrastructure, the complication of living conditions of local residents who remain; limited markets for household agricultural products, limited access to technology and others. These consequences have a single root -the lack of proper socio economic conditions for the existence and development of the village.
scientific developments in the field of rural tourism, as one of the directions for increasing the attractiveness of rural areas, the issues of trends and ways to overcome obstacles to the sustainable development of rural tourism in our country are insufficiently investigated and remain relevant.
The purpose of the article. The main purpose of this work is to substantiate the trends and prospects of development of green tourism in Odessa region as one of the areas of diversification of rural activities to promote socio economic growth of the village and its population.
Statement of the main material. Odessa region is one of the leading tourist and recreational centers of Ukraine, which is primarily due to the peculiarities of the economic and geographical position of the region, favorable natural and climatic conditions, and the presence of a large number of historical monuments, culture, natural healing resources and sea sandy beaches. The listed components create the prerequisites for the development in the field of various types of tourism: cultural, educational, religious, medical, ecological, cruise, especially rural green tourism. Green tourism has been developing in the state for about 20 years, but has weak legislative support. Certain legislative norms are enshrined in the Law of Ukraine "On personal peasant farming" dated 15.05.2003 No. 742 IV as amended on 05.04.2015. The concept of "green tourism" is found in the definition of personal peasant economy as a type of activity. This Law states that the members of the personal peasant economy carry out activities at their discretion and risk within the established legal economic order, in compliance with the requirements of the laws of Ukraine and other legal acts. Such activities are related to the conduct of personal peasant farming, are non entrepreneurial activities, are positioned as one of the types of work and services in the personal auxiliary business and are subject to accounting performed by local authorities. Provision of rural green tourism services within the framework of a personal peasant economy does not require special permission from state bodies, income from this activity is taxed on a general basis as income of individuals who are not entrepreneurs [8].
The perspective area for the development of this type of activity is the Odessa region, which is one of the leading tourist regions of Ukraine. During 2016-2018, the number of tourists in Odessa increased almost twice and in 2018 amounted to 81.4 thousand people against 43.4 thousand in 2014 (Table 1).
Odessa region has sufficient potential for further development of the tourism industry. Thus, in 2018 the number of hotels and similar accommodation facilities amounted to 4719, with a simultaneous capacity of 300.00 thousand units.
The number of persons who were accommodated amounted to 7006.2 thousand people, which is 5.2% more than in the previous year, but 15.6% less than in 2013 (Table 2).
At present, there are no reliable and accurate official statistics on tourist visits to Odessa region. Without this, it remains to be determined how the attractiveness of the region has changed and which areas of the area are more popular with guests. It is obvious that in Ukraine there is a tendency to increase the demand for rural green tourism services among the citizens of the country.
Rural green tourism is based on agricultural activities, natural resources and hospitality of the rural population. Therefore, it is important to understand that preserving and enriching the village as a valuable environment for the economic development of the country as a whole is an extremely important task. Unfortunately, government programs for the revival of the Ukrainian village are not effective, and it is almost impossible to stop the processes of transformation of rural territories [5]. Table 3 shows the dynamic changes in the number of rural territories of Odessa region.
Note that a third of the population of Odessa region constantly lives in rural areas, which increases the relevance of attention to the problems of these territories. In the last 5 years, we have seen a downward trend in this indicator, but the pace of these changes is not significant.
Despite the agricultural production specialization of rural settlements and rural municipalities, which is its important social function, there has been a steady tendency towards a reduction in agricultural employment recently. Table 4 presents a comparative analysis of the change in the share of rural employment in Ukraine [6].
As the statistical studies show, there are constant fluctuations in the trend of a decrease in agricultural employment with sufficient stability in changes in the rural population. Over the six year period, the share of people employed in agriculture in the Odessa region has not changed and amounts to 50%, which in absolute terms in 2018 amounted to 163,200 people.
The situation of the rest of the rural population can be explained by the following reasons: -increase of unemployment among rural population; -increasing non agricultural activities in rural areas; -increase in the number of persons working in cities or abroad without changing their place of residence.
With regard to the increase in non agricultural employment, it is indeed observed and is due to the increase in jobs in social infrastructure, trade, government and local government, the financial sector. However, it is necessary to take into account the main production potential of rural areas. Diversification as a mechanism for rural development then becomes effective as its production potential increases.
The diversification opportunities of the village are not significant to date. The reasons for these limitations are directly objective: insufficient quantity and quality of the labor force, underdeveloped capacity of the main markets, their closeness in location and weakness of innovative production development. When developing mechanisms for diversification of village activities, it is important to bear in mind that they must have a close link with agricultural production and the rural culture of being. Rural tourism (agritourism), as one of the directions of diversification, embodies certain effects of synergy on the economy of rural territories (Table  5).
Agrotourism or rural tourism is a vacation in the countryside (in villages, farms, in convenient Christian buildings, in agricultural settlements), during which tourists spend some time in rural life, get acquainted with local culture and local traditions, take part in traditional rural labor [10].
As we can see, rural tourism, which has become a common practice within the rural area is able to provide: increase of employment of rural population; raising the income of peasants; further development of village infrastructure; increasing the social activity of rural residents.
To determine the prospects for the development of rural green tourism in the Odessa region conducted   www.economy.in.ua a SWOT analysis of this type of activity, which made it possible to identify opportunities and problems, to use or prevent them in time ( Table 6). The south of the country has sufficient resource potential for the development of green tourism. This is due to the presence of significant agricultural ecologically clean territories, the high ethnic and natural diversity of the region, the preservation of the traditional culture of ethnic groups in a number of settlements, and rich historical and cultural potential.
According to the world experience, the success of rural green tourism as a tourism industry sector provides a set of the following factors: innovative technologies, a high level of economic efficiency and competitiveness of a tourism product, taking into account current trends in the identity of tourism services, solving social problems, political and state support for the development of this type of activity ( fig. 1).
Considering the results of the scientific researches, it is necessary to note the necessity of a number of measures to develop rural (green) tourism in the Odessa region: Increase of professionalism and increase of competences of management structures, increase of efficiency of work of managers, and as a consequence of increase of managerial and entrepreneurial potential of rural population  -the need for constant support to rural tourism workers in connection with the high costs associated with the establishment of a tourist product; -unfavorable legal and economic environment for the activities of the rural population -lack of attractive credit resources, conditions for investments; -at the national level there is no advertising of rural tourism; -unstable macroeconomic situation in the country Table 6. SWOT analysis of green tourism in Odessa the region First, systematic state support for rural tourism is needed.
Second, the need for regulatory support for the development of rural green tourism.
Third, the development and support of rural tourism development programs in the Southern region of Ukraine.
Fourth, the creation of regional associations of rural tourism entities.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Rural green tourism in modern realities is one of the most priority areas of diversification of economic activity of agricultural sector entities, is an alternative source of ensuring employment of rural population, raising its income and quality of life. The main priorities for the development of rural green tourism for the South of Ukraine are concentrated in the following areas: 1) the creation of regional agrotourism networks through the development of small, family and individual agrotourism businesses based on existing tourism resources in rural areas: a small family hotel industry and agrotourism infrastructure; 2) the unification of the sociocultural environment of historical objects; 3) the creation of large and medium specialized agrotourism facilities, centers (sports, cultural, culinary) 4) the creation of state and private agricultural parks, complexes with the appropriate infrastructure; 5) at the legislative level, it is necessary to fix the legal definition of the concept of rural green tourism, it is necessary to differentiate between entrepreneurial and non entrepreneurial activities in the tourism industry in the countryside, it is necessary to strengthen state support for agrotourism as a form of employment for the rural population, to organize training and vocational training for rural tourism.
Overcoming the existing problems and obstacles to the development of green tourism in the rural areas of Ukraine is possible only due to a justified effective mechanism for diversifying the economic activities of agricultural enterprises in modern conditions, which serves as prospects for further scientific research.