Features of Accommodation in Rural Tourism

A number of trends that developed after COVID-19 have persisted in the modern tourism market to this day. Among them: booking and paying for tours shortly before the start of the trip, increasing demand for weekend tours, tourists’ desire to relax in little-known tourist centers, and the opportunity to combine vacation with remote work. These trends gave impetus to the development of not only domestic tourism, but also gave impetus to the development of such types of tourism as environmental, gastronomic and, of course, rural. Today, fewer and fewer people associate rural tourism with agricultural production. For most, rural tourism is a vacation in the countryside with the opportunity to get acquainted with the traditions and customs of a certain area, try farm products and, if desired, get involved in simple work on the farm, for example, take part in harvesting or milking a cow. Rural tourism is well developed in Italy, Spain, and France. In Russia, according to tour operators, the share of travelers within the framework of rural tourism is less than 1% of the total tourist flow in the country (it is estimated at 25 million people in the period from May to August 2022). At the same time, rural tourism is an actively developing direction in which the accommodation facility and the services it offers are of no small importance. Rural tourism facilities on Lake Baikal, Seliger, and the Volga region, which managed to formulate their concept of serving tourists by 2020, have been in maximum demand since 2021. Starting from 2022, a regulatory legal act regulating the relationship of all parties interested in the development of rural tourism came into force; from 2024, the requirements for accommodation facilities in rural tourism, which are considered by the authors of the article, began to apply.