Summary:

The research addressed the problem of determining conditions for tourism development in the mountain rural areas in Poland. The investigations were conducted with regard to administrative division of Poland; therefore a municipality was the smallest researched unit. The investigations focused on all municipalities in Poland constituting rural disadvantaged areas (determined as mountain ONW areas, a total of 50 municipalities in four provinces: dolnośląskie, malopolskie, podkarpackie and śląskie. Ratio analysis was conducted exclusively for rural areas. The data presented by matching features originated from various sources, mainly including data provided by The Main Statistical Office (for 2003) and the data of the general census (for 2002). Moreover the information was also obtained by means of surveys from the municipalities under analysis. The investigations were carried out by an original method, using a synthetic measure of tourist area development (SMUTRO). Potential applications of the original measure were presented on an example of Stronie Śląskie municipality where individual conditionings were subsequently presented. Four different groups of conditioning were assumed for the analysis of tourism development in the analysed area: infrastructural, economic, environmental and social. The groups were identified due to their role in the area of tourism consumption. The areas of partial conditionings were identified in the frame of the formerly mentioned groups and subsequently for each of them features affecting the level of the analysed conditionings was determined. Presented investigations constitute only a part of complex research conducted by the Author in 2004/2005 and their results will be presented in a book.