This article examines the tourist role of protected areas important for their unanimated nature potential. In Poland the highest form of legal protection is a national park. Babiogórski National Parks is one of 23 national parks in Poland. The aim of this article is to present its tourist attraction based on its geotourist potential considered by tourists who visit this park. At the beginning a brief history of protection of Babia Góra is presented. Based on stock-taking sightseeing method an analysis of the most important tourist attractiveness elements (like infrastructure or tourist values) is done. The focus on the values of unanimated nature is made grouping them into four main categories. As the result of research on infrastructure the most important accommodation units were indicated present at the surroundings of this National Park which is vital for its tourist capacity. For the correct functioning of tourist movement at the protected area the supporting infrastructure is important bearing a lot of functions. The function of channeling of the tourist movement as well as the didactic function are the most important for protection and correct use of geotourist values. Among the many elements of the supporting infrastructure the most important ones are tourist and didactic routes (their course and themes are presented). The most important part of the article is the presentation of the participants of the tourist movement opinions on the Babiogórski National Park tourist attractiveness. A survey was conducted and then analysed on 308 respondents in 2011. They were asked to judge both the quality of infrastructure as well as attraction of geotourist values together with their adaptation to reception by the tourist movement. The results analysis served as a base to appraise the state and perspectives for the geotourism development in Babiogórski National Park from the point of view of the receivers of tourist product i.e. the protected area.

The power of the Internet as a communicative and promotional tool in the contemporary world of tourism is unquestionable. Nevertheless, the context of online information availability referring to geotourism and georesources is very rarely addressed in the academic literature. This article undertakes research into the online information availability on georesources presented on the official websites of the National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) of three selected Central European countries with similar geotourism conditions, namely the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. Their NTOs underwent a descriptive content analysis in order to highlight the dominating trends in the online presentation of georesources. As concluded in the article, information on geotourism resources available online is rather dispersed, as it is usually presented under divergent umbrella terms. Therefore, measures need to be taken to present a holistic online picture of geoheritage on an international level of availability, where certain pieces of geotourism-related information correspond with each other, accurately applying the system of hyperlinks. The research outcomes and suggestions for the future may find applicable use for various stakeholders of the tourism industry, especially the authorities responsible for different levels of its promotion.

The aim of the publication was to assess the geotourist attractiveness of protected areas in Poland among weekend tourists based on the example of Gorczański National Park. The park location near urbanized areas makes it an attractive field for research on weekend tourism development. The tourist potential of the park is presented, starting from geological aspects and geotourist values. Then, the tourist potential was analysed, with a focus on geotourist resources, which include tourist trails and didactic routes. The tourist traffic volume was also examined. On the basis of legal documents, such as nature conservation plans, threats related to tourism development in protected areas were presented as indicated by park managers. In accordance with the Act on Nature Conservation, the threats are divided into four groups: internal existing and potential threats and external existing and potential threats. The tourists’ opinion on the geotourist attractiveness of the park was investigated with surveys conducted during selected weekends significant in the context of tourist traffic volume. Thus, a profile of people visiting the park for short stays was obtained, as well as their assessment of the tourist resources of the area, with particular emphasis on geotourist values.

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This paper investigates the state of information on geoheritage or, in a wider perspective, a geotourist offer that can be found on the Internet, the basic source of information for the potential tourist, at the example of Lower Silesia. In order to achieve the intended aim, firstly a discussion concerning the division of the tourist resources in the literature was presented. It served as the starting point for the selection and analysis of particular resources, and their online promotion techniques. A place of the geotourist resources within this group was highlighted. Next, the analysis of official documents that constitute the basis for actions aimed at the promotion of tourist resources, with the geotourist ones in particular, was carried out. Predominantly, they comprised the strategies of tourism development at different levels, i.e. the level of voivodeship, and the selected counties, where crucial georesources, or geoheritage complexes of the region are located. One of the most important examples is the Kłodzko County, officially referred to in its strategy as “the Tourist County.” The authors also indicated the nature-based tourist resources of Lower Silesia, placing special emphasis on the resources presented in the Geotourist Catalogues - the most comprehensive presentations of this kind of resources in Poland. In the following part, another analysis was presented regarding information on natural resources promoted on the websites of public administration, or local authorities. Selected websites were examined for their accessibility and the manner in which the georesources are presented. The main result of the conducted research is highlighting the fact that geotourism as a distinctive tourism category is not sufficiently promoted online. The reason behind it is the dispersion of geotourist resources being categorised under divergent umbrella terms. A set of actions for the implementation of changes that can possibly improve the present situation was suggested.

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The aim of the paper is to present the situation of the spa resorts in Poland from the geographical point of view, emphasizing especially the tourist context of their existence. This article firstly deals with the brief history of spas in Poland and the definition of the phenomenon, presented in the Polish literature and legal acts. The main part of the paper presents the geographical analysis of the phenomenon: spatial distribution of the activities allowed by law, localization concerning the different kind of landscapes that accompanies the spas, natural and curative resources and the medical treatments based on their potential. In addition, the tourist context analysed with the support of the statistical data of the accommodation units, tourist sand its preferences, and health tourist establishments in the spa resorts and its usage is also crucial. The perspectives of the spa tourism development in Poland concerning the potential and obstacles are presented.

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