Abstract
This paper discusses terminological problems that have arisen in tourist-recreational sphere. One of them is related to the semantic differences between terms “tourist resource” and “tourist potential”. There was also an analysis of various ways to assess the “tourist resources” and “tourist potential” of domestic and foreign researchers. One of the issues under consideration is the study of natural tourist and recreational resources as the basis of tourist and recreational potential. It was noted that the recreational potential of territory should be considered as a set of objective and subjective prerequisites for the development of recreation and tourism in promising territorial recreational systems. Moreover, it was found that the tourism and recreation potential of the region is an important part of the design, placement and optimization of development of tourism and recreation systems, as well as determining their main functions, based on the value of their own resources and their combination, sustainable development of tourism and recreation. Thus, dependence of natural factors on objects and recreational activities is shown on the case of East Kazakhstan oblast (EKO). In addition, within the framework of this paper, the East Kazakhstan oblast region has assessed natural prerequisites for tourism development and analyzed the classification of landscape species by the degree of attractiveness and identified promising areas for tourism development in this region. As the final result of the study, based on the application of various methods of scientists and researchers, a map of the zoning of the territory of the East Kazakhstan oblast according to the degree of attractiveness of natural landscapes was compiled.