Drivers of sustainable development of rural tourism: European experience

This work is devoted to outline the practices of sustainable tourism development. The article gives the social, economic and environmental consequences as result of the unsustainable and chaotic tourism development. The author investigates the feasibility of sustainable development. Based on the international research and declarations forms of international organizations, this article elaborates the problems in interpreting the terms of “green economy”, “sustainable tourism” and various forms of rural tourism. The article discusses the main problems and the potential for sustainable development of rural tourism based on European experiences. In addition, it identified and justified the necessity of clustering of rural tourism products. The researcher attempts to explain the role of a stakeholder groups in the structure model of the national rural tourism cluster based on the principles of sustainable development. Hence, the goal is to preserve the environment systematically and participatory, leading to gaining socio-economic benefits. This experience is appropriate for supporting the transition towards a green economy sustainably.