Изследване На Екологическите Дадености И Културни Ресурси За Развитие На Туризма В Селските Райони На България И Китай[Study of ecological endowments and cultural resources for tourism development in rural areas of Bulgaria and China]

The research target is to analyse the development degree of the rural tourism in all its varieties in Bulgaria and China, its role for achievement of a sustainable and diversified development, as well as to assess the synergic effects of the protection and restoration of the ecologic and cultural wealth and to create a tourist product for a sustainable and viable rural development. The study was made on the base of a detailed examination of the existing Bulgarian and foreign literature in the area of the sustainable development of the tourism in rural areas. The elaborated methodology provides a reliable and complex assessment of the synergy of tourism development in rural communities on the conservation, the sustainable use of ecological and cultural resources, as well as the contribution to the overall development of the local economy. In the scientific literature and the contemporary scientific thought more attention is paid to the strengths, natural and other conditions to be turned into a driving force for preserving and vitalising rural communities. The tourism is conceived as a sector with a special promising opportunity for the development of these territories. The formation of a sustainable and recognisable tourist product in rural areas is based on multiple elements: climate, locality, sand, sea, landscape, infrastructure, hospitality, life quality, life style, health and regional specificity. For the aims of the study has been chosen two pilot municipalities in Bulgaria – Strelcha and Hissarya. Both municipalities are neighbouring geographically, but belonging to two different administrative regions – Pazardzhik and Plovdiv. The economies of the two pilot municipalities although similar, show several differences as a result of different reasons, analysed in-depth. One feature in common for both pilot regions and one of the most significant resource for the tourism development in these municipalities is the hot mineral springs. The research of the situation and the opportunity of hot water use enable making analysis of the effects and contributions of this resource for the regions. It is established that both in Bulgaria and in China, according to the particularities, similar in nature but different in form and specificity approaches have been applied to create a sustainable tourism product by creating tourist clusters based on the regional resources of the regions, which will lead to the utilisation of potential touristic capital. Wonderful prerequisites are available, which should be examined in a long-term outlook, for Bulgarian natural conditions, specific for rural areas, to become an attractive tourist product for the growing and increasingly developing demand of the Chinese tourist industry and of the rising flow of Chinese travellers.