NATURE-BASED TOURISM AND OUTDOOR RECREATION AS INTEGRAL CONCEPTS OF ACTIVE TYPES OF TOURISM AND RECREATION

Objective. The purpose of the article is to try to organize the definitions of active tourism and recreation with the proposal of a unifying term for types of tourism related to travel in the natural environment. Methods. To outline the object and subject area of the study of the development of active forms of tourism and recreation, to clarify the essence of basic terms and concepts, general scientific methods were used – dialectical, induction and deduction, and to analyze the conceptual and terminological apparatus of the study – system-structural analysis and synthesis. Among the scientific approaches, the systemic and geospatial approaches are of cross-cutting importance. Results. The analysis of the correlation between the concepts of active forms of tourism and recreation made it possible to conclude that they all use terms that reflect the trend of growing interest and careful attitude to nature. That is why they should be referred to as nature-based tourism, which should be understood as any active type of recreation, traveling directly in a little-altered natural environment, outside of man-made landscapes. Within the framework of nature-based tourism, the block of active tourism is distinguished, meaning one that uses active means of transportation and overcoming obstacles (on foot, kayaking, skiing, bicycles, etc.) when overcoming tourist routes. The active tourism block is divided into three segments: sports and recreation tourism (sports and health tourism) → sports tourism → extreme tourism. Sports tourism is the central link of the active tourism block; it is a type of active recreational and tourist activity that takes place in the natural environment and consists in passing tourist sports routes with overcoming various obstacles (passes, peaks, rapids, canyons, caves, etc.) by various means of transportation using special techniques and equipment. Adventure tourism should be considered as a Western analogue of sports tourism. The object-subject area of active (outdoor) recreation, which, unlike active tourism, is local in nature, should be considered separately. The scientific novelty is to organize the definitions of active tourism and recreation with the proposal of a unifying term for types of tourism related to travel in the natural environment and separately types of active recreation. Practical significance. The tested methodology can be used for further research on active tourism and recreation related to travel in the natural environment.