Assessment of rural tourism service sector development in Lithuania

Abstract

The article deals with rural tourism services sector and its development problems. In Lithuania rural tourism the most growing tourism services sector, which must be supported and actively developed due to the fact that rural tourism decide the country's social and environmental problems, enables the development of country's economy, helping to address the employment of rural population. However, rural tourism in the process of its activities as well as facing a number of obstacles and challenges that need to be identified and evaluated. Relevance of the research topic is based on the assessment of rural tourism services sector analysis and its problematic aspects. The study of characteristics of rural tourism service shows that rural tourism service is an activity, which directly or indirectly contributes to the satisfaction of consumers’ needs, and manifests as a relation between consumers and servants providing the service. Rural tourism service exists as long as it is provided and consumed. Usually, services are being classified according to several characteristics. This helps to better understand and improve the rendered services, and to strive for their quality and competitiveness.