At the present stage of tourism development in the world, the ecological tourism is one of the priority directions of sustainable development of the territories. Ecological tourism in Ukraine is at an initial stage of its expansion, but due to the existing natural and recreational resources of the country, this type of tourism has all the chances to become one of the main types of travel and create all conditions for improving the socio-economic situation of the population. The subject of the research is the prospects for the development of ecological tourism in Ukraine on the basis of the existing resource base. The goal of the paper is to substantiate the state and the prospects of the development of ecological tourism in Ukraine. The objective: to define the essence of the concept of "ecological tourism", to analyze the current state of the development of ecological tourism in Ukraine, to consider the features of regulatory and legal regulation of ecological tourism, to determine the prospects for the development of ecological tourism.In the article general scientific methods are used such as the analysis - for the research of separate components of ecological tourism; synthesis – to combine individual facts; statistical method – for the processing of statistical information and for qualitative evaluation of data; method of induction and deduction – helps to draw conclusions based on existing facts; systematic approach – for a holistic study of the prospects of ecological tourism relative to external factors of influence. The following results were obtained: on the basis of the analysis, the theoretical aspects of the concept “ecological tourism”are investigated, the necessary resources for the development of ecological tourism in the country are identified and the main prospects for the development of ecological tourism of Ukraine are determined. Conclusions: the prospects for the development of ecological tourism reflect the positive effect of ecotourism in Ukraine, which indicates the importance of its organization and development in the domestic tourist market of the country.