Agrotourism as an element of the development of a green economy in a resort area

Abstract

Due to the deterioration of the environmental situation in the world, many countries are interested in a strategy of “green growth” that combines efforts in the field of economics, ecology, sociology, health care, and technology. One of the environmentally friendly activities is agrotourism. Russian regions have a huge natural and recreational potential for agrotourism, which has a high socio-economic importance for municipalities in terms of the development of small and medium-sized businesses, the creation of additional jobs, the formation of the added value of the tourist product. However, there are negative factors: low level of infrastructure development, lack of a recognizable brand, poor transport accessibility to the objects of agrotourism, seasonality of agricultural products, weak state financial support for the development of entrepreneurship in rural areas, lack of investors’ interest. The paper presents main features of the development of agrotourism in the resort area (for example, the resort city of Sochi) that has the properties of a “green economy” and can contribute to “green growth”.