The paper systematizes the main scientific concepts, highlights the peculiarities of the formation and substantiates the methodological foundations of the study of rural green tourism in the system of economic development of rural areas of Ukraine. In the process of elaboration of the basic scientific concepts of the research problems the essence and content of rural green tourism are specified, which allowed to substantiate its differences from ecological and agritourism. The conceptual understanding of rural green tourism is generalized with the formulation of its definition as a type of tourism, business, employment (usually rural population) and hospitality, which provides tourist services related to meeting
the needs of recreation, recreation, knowledge, development and education in line with sustainability goals and reflected in the processes of economic development of rural areas. The development of rural green tourism is ensured by the intensification of economic activity of its subjects, which involves official or illegal commercial activities with the offer of recreation, recreation, cognition, development, education
and is accompanied by competition with other subjects of the tourism market. Rural green tourism services are systematized with distribution according to different needs of actual and potential consumers. The infrastructural provision of the sphere, which is formed by: agro-, eco-hotels, is characterized; boarding houses, sanatoriums; private estates (houses); agro-, eco-farms; campsites, glampings, parking lots; tent camps; open-air museum; agricultural and folk museums. Organizational ways to meet the needs of rural green tourism can be: individual recreation of a family or individual; seminars, retreats, gatherings; toloki; festivals; fairs, exhibitions; hikes, expeditions, travels, excursions, tastings, etc. The relevance of ecological development of rural green tourism in Ukraine is substantiated. The basic principles and directions of motivation of management in
the field of ecological tourism are established. It is proved that the development of ecological tourism in Ukraine should be carried out on the basis of territorial concentration, strengthening the powers of local authorities an d using a programtargeted approach to involve the rural population in business projects of ecological tourism. Legislative initiatives on ecological specialization of rural green tourism, covering conceptual-strategic, normative and program-target provisions, are substantiated. The necessity of introduction of the ecosystem approach in realization of regional and local programs of social and economic development of a complex of measures of branch policy with strategic strengthening of an ecological priority of managing is proved. It is proposed to define the legislative vertical in the stimulation of ecological tourism with the unconditionality of national priorities and the specification of the possibilities of their implementation at the regional and local
levels. The need to develop model projects of ecological tourism is indicated, in connection with which the author’s examples for Zaporizhia region are given. An optimization model of tourist activity in the field of rural green tourism is proposed, the approbation of which allows to substantiate the effectiveness of the business idea of creating a rural green estate or ways to develop an existing estate, taking into account restrictions on the number of tourists, excursionists and other visitors. services of a rural estate.
