Currently, rural tourism is a popular type of tourism industry in almost all countries of the world. Its activities take place in rural areas, where it is intertwined with other types of tourism - ecological, educational, ethnographic, health and others. And with proper planning, rural tourism can become one of the sustainable types of tourism.        The activity of rural tourism takes place in rural areas and this type of tourism is communication with nature against the background of the real life of the village. Also, the tourism product of rural tourism includes acquaintance with the culture and customs of the villages and villages visited by tourists. It is also an acquaintance with the peculiarities of the local cuisine. Rural tourism involves small groups of vacationers who are accommodated on the basis of the subsidiary farm of the host country.        Rural tourism includes familiarity with the environment, geographical location and history of the countryside. In addition, a fairly wide range of services is provided in rural tourism - horseback riding, hiking, walking in ecological zones, selling souvenirs, visiting rural museums and much more. Therefore, rural tourism is not only recreation, but also a great educational activity about natural resources, about the life and traditions of rural residents, about the history of their native land.        The purpose of this article is to study the legislative acts in the field of development of rural tourism in the regions of the country. The objectives of the article proceed from its purpose and include an analysis of the development of rural tourism in Russia and its regions, the designation of the role of rural tourism in the framework of environmental protection measures and the role of rural tourism in the Sverdlovsk region from the point of view of the environmental safety of the region. The following research methods are used in the article: the method of expert assessments, the historical and logical methods, and the analogy method.