The role of ecological tourism in achieving sustainable development goals in the EAEU

Abstract

The authors propose to consider certain aspects of sustainable tourism development and assess their contribution to the development of the economies of the EAEU countries. The article provides an assessment of the development of ecological tourism in the EAEU countries, based on existing indicators, including evaluation of the level of competitiveness of tourism, the development of special protection conservation areas, data on environmental education and tourism activities on the territory of the state wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. The authors draw conclusions about the need to create a unified policy and regulatory framework for the development of ecological tourism in the EAEU, to work out a system of indicators and to create tourism assessment methodology for sustainable development. Besides, it is important to introduce a set of measures for information, marketing and staffing to develop ecotourism in the EAEU countries. Competitiveness in ecotourism remains low.