Possibilities of using tourist and recreational potential in the conditions of decentralization (on the example of UTC of Volyn region)

The article deals with the comprehensive assessment of the tourist and recreational potential of Golovnenskaya UTC of Volyn region. Golovnenskaya UTC hasn’t known as a tourism destination among the Ukrainian tourists very well because of a lack of information about available resource potential, tourist attractions and tourist products of the community. Therefore, there is an urgent necessity to research these aspects. It could become an impulse in the activation the tourist flow, the lever of the formation of a competitive tourist product of regional and local significance. It also gives a great opportunity to increase the investment attractiveness of the territory, to solve partly the issue of employment of the population and essentially fill the budget of community. Based on results of the conducted research the following conclusions have been made: 1. The main natural recreational tourist resources and the components of the historical and cultural heritage, which determined the tourist specialization of the studied community have characterized. An important structure-forming element of the natural resource potential are the forest resources. They could be used for the development of the various forms of ecological tourism. In the community function 11 objects of the natural reserve fund. 2. Golovnenskaya UTC is situated in the historical and ethnographic region of Polissya and attracts the peculiarities of the traditional material and spiritual culture, language and so preserved the ancient relics of the Slavonic culture. 3. The analysis of the current state of tourism infrastructure in separate subsystems has conducted: placement establishments, food establishments, leisure establishments and consumer service, transport infrastructure. It is established that the tourist infrastructure is the weakest component of the tourist and recreational potential. The degree of its formation is quite low and does not provide a proper level of service to tourists. Each of the components of the tourist infrastructure of the community needs a separate, comprehensive, systematic approach to improvement and reform. For a comprehensive assessment of the problems and prospects of the tourism potential studied UTC of the Volyn region in the tourism sector elaborated SWOT-analysis. The main urgent problems in Golovnenskaya UTC are providing the infrastructure improvement and the information management of the main attractive objects of historical and cultural heritage and of the natural reserve fund, which are the most popular among the tourists, the low level of the development of the ecological tourism, the insufficient provision of the information about the tourist and recreational opportunities of the region.