What is Zone

This chapter develops an innovative approach to revealing recreational and touristic potential of rural territories based on grouping, classification of types, and clustering. The study is completed on the case of southern parts of Russia as the most suitable areas in the country for the development of rural tourism. The authors elaborate an approach to classification of rural territories on four parameters in purpose to discover their social, economic, demographic, and recreational potential for the development of rural tourism. Application of the approach in the case of rural territories of Stavropol region allowed establishing the individual complexes of innovative measures aimed at the diversification of employment of rural population and promotion of tourism and recreation sectors.