Level of the development and distribution of public catering enterprises in rural areas of the Republic of Mordovia

Introduction. The positioning of the Republic of Mordovia as a tourist destination makes the issue of the development of public catering enterprises in rural areas topical. Today, the problem is the lack of the necessary number of the enterprises and seats needed in accordance with the regulatory requirements. The purpose of the article is to determine the level of development and to reveal the spatial features of the location of public catering enterprises in the municipal districts of the Republic. Materials and Methods. The data of the territorial body of the Federal State Statistics Service in the Republic of Mordovia became the factual base of the study. The methods of mathematical statistics, analysis, comparison and generalization, as well as the cartographic method were used. Results. The paper shows the level of development of the food industry as an element of the tourist infrastructure in the territory of the municipal districts of the Republic of Mordovia on the whole and in the city of Saransk in particular. The peculiarities of the development of public catering in rural areas of the region are identified and systematized. The spatial structure of public catering in rural areas of the Republic is presented. The main problems in the food industry in rural areas are revealed and ways to eliminate them are suggested. For the first time a comprehensive analysis of the development and distribution of public catering enterprises in the municipal districts of the Republic of Mordovia is given within the framework of one article. Discussion and Conclusions. The level of development of the food industry in rural areas of the Republic of Mordovia is still lagging behind the basic requirements of national standards. The results of the study made it possible to assess the current state of the food service in the countryside and make a number of proposals to improve the level of provision of rural areas with food for the development of tourism in this area. The results of the research can contribute to the development of the Regional Program for the Development of Rural Tourism by the Ministry of Culture, National Policy, Tourism and Archives of the Republic of Mordovia, where the development of the food industry in the municipal districts of the Republic should feature prominently.