At the present stage, the environmentally safe development of tourism and recreational activities in Ukraine is gaining strategic importance as a priority area of sustainable development. It promotes the rational use of natural areas, contributes to the formation of environmental awareness, and requires systematic regulation to prevent environmental degradation. The aim of this study was to generalise international experience in managing the environmentally safe development of tourism and recreational activities and to establish an analytical framework for its adaptation to Ukrainian conditions. The study systematises international management approaches and identifies eight typological models of ecotourism development characterised by institutional architecture, the role of local communities, visitor flow management instruments, the application of environmental standards, and collaborative governance mechanisms. Based on a comparative case-study analysis, the key trends were identified, including the intensification of environmental certification, the expansion of community-based tourism, the digitalisation of visitor management in protected areas, and the development of low-impact tourism practices. Particular attention was paid to rankings and composite indices as instruments for enhancing national competitiveness in international tourism and as elements of contemporary geopolitical positioning. The structure of the Global Wildlife Travel Index was analysed, and the positions of Australia, Canada, the United States, and Ukraine were compared using selected indicators and overall index values. The study revealed several methodological limitations of the index, including its sensitivity to indicator selection and aggregation procedures, which reduces the validity of final assessments and necessitates its critical application in scientific research. The findings substantiate the need for further refinement of tourism sustainability indices in order to improve the transparency, reproducibility, and comparability of assessment results and to enhance their applicability in evidence-based tourism policy and environmental management