Recreational and geographical research for tourism development planning on unique natural territories

The article is devoted to the scientific problems of the territorial development of tourism. These problems are in focus of the complex geographical studies and especially relevant due to the priority of tourism development for territories with a unique nature. The coast of Lake Baikal is an example of this type. The article presents the main results of recreational and geographical studies conducted in the central ecological zone of the Baikal Natural Territory (within the boundaries of Irkutsk Region). The author reveals the main natural-ecological and socio-economic factors of the spatial organization of tourism. The research is based on theoretical and methodological approaches to recreational geography, uses landscape planning approaches, as well as specific methods of physical and socio-economic geography. The study includes legislative-legal zoning of the territory, identification of environmental-economic contradictions in tourism development, component-wise and integral assessment of the sustainability of natural ecosystems to recreation press. The article characterizes the current state of the recreational infrastructure on the Baikal coast, and presents the result of structural analysis of tourist activity. The main part of tourist bases, hotels and other objects of tourist facilities are confined to coastal settlements that exist thanks to tourism. For the local population, involvement in the sphere of tourist services (housing, catering, excursion services, etc.) often becomes the only way to self-employment and the main source of livelihood. The most important results of the team's work is the justification and allocation of territories for priority tourism development on the coast of Lake Baikal (tourism and recreational zones), as well as the elaborating the project of "Rules for the organizing tourism and recreation in the central ecological zone of the Baikal Natural Territory of Irkutsk Region".