THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPORT TOURISM MOVEMENT IN WESTERN UKRAINE (THE MIDDLE OF THE XIX – THE MIDDLE OF THE XX CENTURY)
The purpose of the article is to clarify the process of emergence of sports tourism in Western Ukraine and to study the factors that positively influenced on this process. Methods. The investigation based on the use of general scientific and special research methods. General scientific methods include descriptive method, method of analysis and synthesis, generalization and abstraction, comparison and analogy. Results. It was found that the development of tourism was associated with the natural interest of society, which intensified ethnographic and cultural research. In the process of their implementation, new routes were laid, knowledge about the geography of the region was deepened, and the tourist infrastructure was formed. Physical preparation for the hikes took the form of scouting, which included the formation of skills of survival in natural conditions, the ability to navigate the terrain, set up a tent, light a fire, cook, and so on. The form of such training proposed by the British officer quickly gained popularity throughout the world and in particular in Western Ukraine. Gradually, sport tourism is becoming widespread. Overcoming financial, material and political difficulties, sports, local history and tourist societies during their existence have worked out numerous forms and methods of popularization and propaganda of Ukrainian history, sports, nature and culture using means of tourist and local history activities. Their work experience convincingly indicates the need for coordination of the activities of individual fans of tourism and travel, the concentration of efforts aimed at studying the recreational and cognitive potential of the native land. The activity of tourist and local lore societies and clubs has practically proved that one of the main factors of youth education is knowledge of one's own history and preservation of the nature of the native land, combination of physical development with patriotic and ecological education. The scientific novelty is that the factors of sports tourism development in the western region of Ukraine were clarified. The relationship between local history movement and sports tourism was determined. The some facts from the history of the local lore movement were indicated. The events testifying to the development of scouting in the western Ukrainian lands were revealed. The pan-European context of the process of sports tourism development and local lore movement was determined. The practical significance lies in the promotion of sports tourism as a form of relaxation and recreation, exposing the potential of scouting for sports training and patriotic education of youth, updating old and developing new tourist routes based on the experience of past tourist clubs.