Subjects of the research of master's thesis are rural tourism in Baranja and Istria. Purpose of the research is to analyze features of development of rural tourism in Baranja and Istria for mutual comparison and to determine potential of rural tourism in Baranja as potential impulse of necessary spatial changes and economic and demographic revitalization of that area.As for the methodology of the work, the first part of the work used an analysis of professional literature on the topic of rural tourism and available statistical data related to visits and overnight stays by rural tourists for Istria and Baranja. In the second part of the paper, the method of surveying the young population (up to 30 years old) is used with the aim of determining the tourist and market demand of Baranja and Istrian tourism through two surveys - one about Baranja and one about Istria. Furthermore, representatives of the TZ Baranja and TZ Istria were interviewed in order to determine the impact of rural tourism on the area of Baranja and on the area of rural Istria. Using the aforementioned methods, it was shown that the determinants, characteristics and factors of the development of rural tourism in Istria and Baranja put Istria in a superior position over Baranja in the rural-tourism context. However,the impact of rural tourism in Istria and Baranja on spatial, economic and demographic features is positive and very similar to each other. It was also shown that the perspectives and additional opportunities for the development of rural tourism in Istria are promising, favorable and realistic, and that the possibility of developing rural tourism in Baranja based on the example of the Istrian model is realistic and certain. On the other hand, it turned out that the rural tourism of Baranja still does not have the potential to be as recognizable in the tourist and market as the rural tourism of Istria.