METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE ASSESSMENT OF THE TOURIST AND RECREATIONAL POTENTIAL OF A REGION (A CASE OF THE CHECHEN REPUBLIC)

The purpose of the study is a comparative analysis of approaches and methods for assessing the tourist and recreational potential of a region. The information base was the work of domestic and foreign researchers, data from the Federal State Statistics Service, the Federal Agency for Tourism, the Ministry of the Chechen Republic for Tourism; Ministries of Culture, Red Book of the Chechen Republic. Methods of comparative analysis, content analysis, computation and scoring were used. Currently, there are many concepts, approaches and methods for assessing potential, among which qualitative and quantitative methods dominate. Assessment of tourist and recreational potential based on indicators characterizing the natural, recreational, cultural, historical and infrastructure potential on the example of the Chechen Republic revealed territorial differentiation in the context of administrative districts. The maximum values of the integral potential (18 scores) were obtained for the highland Itum-Kalinskiy district, where there is high biodiversity, relatively intact natural landscapes and many objects of historical and cultural heritage. The group with smaller potential values included the lowland Groznenskiy (11) and mountain Vedenskiy (13) and Shatoyskiy (11) districts. Grozny district is included due to the provision of a hotel fund, and mountainous areas - significant biodiversity, the presence of residential and military tower buildings of the Middle Ages. The Naursky, Nadterechny, Nozhai-Yurtovsky and Kurchaloy districts are less significant for recreation and tourism due to insignificant biodiversity and low infrastructure potential. The assessment of the tourist and recreational potential, taking into account regional specifics, revealed favorable prerequisites for the development of a wide variety of types of tourism in the Chechen Republic - from sports and recreation to gastronomic. In order to form a high-quality tourist product in the region, systematic work is needed to identify the recreational needs of the population, to assess tourist and recreational resources and the state of infrastructure, to introduce innovations.