Environmental tourism in Crimea: experience in implementing the sustainable development principles

The conceptual basis of modern changes in tourism is a sustainable development, the basic principles of which are most translated into the idea of ecological tourism. The paper presents the results of a study of the organization of ecological tourist routes and programs in protected areas of the Crimean peninsula. Spatial differences in the density of ecological route network, the functional structure of routes and trails, the degree of their infrastructure and information support were revealed. Attractiveness of the routes is dueto the high concentration of socially significant objects of natural and cultural heritage within boundaries of protected areas. For ecological tourism, the most developed are mountain-forest and coastal areas located in the south-west, south and south-east of Crimea. The implementation heterogeneity on the principles of environmental, economic and social sustainability in regional ecotourism development was established. Violations of the regulation principles of recreational load on natural complexes, preservation and reproduction of the resource quality, insufficient use of potential of local communities in the management system of ecological tourism were revealed. Constructive suggestions for optimizing ecotourism in Crimea on the sustainability principles were formulated