The role of agritourism in the development of rural territories in the union state of russia and belarus

The purpose of the study is to assess the state and prospects of rural tourism development as one of the priority areas of economic activity in the agricultural sector of Russia and Belarus and its place in the European market of tourist services. The history of development of agritourism in the world economy is analyzed, the specifics of different countries are noted, and the advantages of agritourism in the Union State are shown. The study was carried out using classical methods of comparison, analysis of dynamic series, and analytical groupings. The modern economic literature highlights the main directions of agritourism development in the world, the impact of investments in agritourism on rural development, and the retention of rural population in Russia and Belarus. The main attention in this article is focused on the advantages of rural tourism in Russia and Belarus in comparison to rest of the European market of tourist services, which can facilitate attracting foreign tourists. At the same time, the strengths and weaknesses of this type of economic activity in the Union State in comparison to the neighboring countries are discussed. Russian regions are grouped by the level of rural tourism development, and the level of investment in agriculture is assessed. The study allowed us to identify the "bottlenecks" in the development of rural tourism in Russia and Belarus and to identify the most important objective and subjective reasons for their occurrence. In the conclusion the article offers a set of recommendations that will allow using the specific natural and climatic features of the Union State to attract state and private investment contributing to the development of agritourism and rural terrritories