Geotourism: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Geotourism is one of the newest concepts within tourism studies today. The popularity of geotourism has likewise grown rapidly over the past few decades. This rapidly growing popularity and the growing body of research on geotourism create the need for a comprehensive review of existing literature on the subject. The present study aims to systematically review scientific literature on geotourism published over the past two decades by identifying what knowledge has been produced on geotourism in the scientific literature and by analyzing the evolving research trends in geotourism during the same time period. The results reveal that researchers are placing an increasing focus on geotourism. A geographical analysis of the study areas indicates a true global distribution, encompassing studies of 53 countries altogether. Most of the research focusses on identifying, describing, and assessing the geoheritage of the areas in question together with their geotourism potential. The volume of research on these topics is growing at a rapid pace. Other common research topics as regards geotourism include management of geotourism and geoheritage, new geosite/geomorphosite assessment models, together with other methodological approaches. The results further indicate that researchers are less interested in geotourism stakeholders such as tourists and local communities, and that only a very small number of studies examine geotourism in the context of sustainable development. The vast majority of the studies utilize empirical data as the basis of the research or for the testing of proposed models and methodology. The present review identifies a need for a larger body of empirical research focusing on (i) sustainability of geotourism, including actual impacts of geotourism on the geoheritage and on the ecosystems of geotourism areas, (ii) knowledge on effective management of the main challenges of geotourism, as well as (iii) on stakeholders and their complex interrelations, including the effects of geotourism on local communities and their well-being.

The Role of Anthropogenic Landforms in Sustainable Landscape Management

“…Proposals for a management strategy and the sustainable using the sites of anthropogenic origin have been the subject of several studies [98]. These studies were mainly focused on abandoned quarries in rural areas, however some proposals for landscape management, including conservation aspects, are common.…”

Geoparks and Education: UNESCO Global Geopark Villuercas-Ibores-Jara as a Case Study in Spain

“…Hose [17] (p. 16) defines it as "The provision of interpretative and service facilities to enable tourists to acquire knowledge and understanding of the geology and geomorphology of a site (including its contribution to the development of the Earth sciences) beyond the level of a mere aesthetic appreciation". It is an open concept that can be developed [18]. Hose's conceptual approach [17] highlights two aspects: the infrastructures that pave the way for the development of tourism and the presence of geological and geomorphological features that set the area apart from others.…”

“…This first appreciation [19] has given rise to other new ones; for example, in the United States it is considered another aspect of sustainable tourism, and it is seen as a way of contributing to the improvement of both the environment and society as a whole [20]. By contrast, in the United Kingdom and Australia, it is assigned more narrowly and almost exclusively to the ambit of geological tourism, as Ólafsdóttir and Tverijonaite [18] derive from the study by Joyce [21] that indicates that geology is the tourist offer's core component, and not like the preceding case in which the environmental context in which it took place prevailed. In the same vein as Joyce [21], Pásková [22] focuses geotourism on the presence of geological and aesthetic resource as the features of attraction, likewise indicating that it is a tourist offer in which geoconservation and learning are implicit.…”

“…In their attempt to harness the concept of geotourism, Ólafsdóttir and Tverijonaite [18] have conducted research involving a literature review of the materials published on geoparks, highlighting how the most accurate and widespread definition is the one made by Newsome and Dowling [12] in 2010. Both have set about defining geotourism by merging the proposals put forward by a series of scholars with the following outcome: "a form of natural area tourism that specifically focuses on geology and landscape.…”

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“…places in solitude or small groups rather than mass tourism. While the term of natural area tourism used to be mainly associated with ecotourism, which is a segment of tourism purely relying on natural excursions still related to sustainable; the last 20 years have driven geotourism activities forward, which are related to non-living aspects of the natural and cultural environment and completely focused on geological and geomorphological qualities of a specific area (Hose, 2008;Newsome, Dowling, & Leung, 2012;Dowling, 2013, Ólafsdóttir & Tverijonaite, 2018.…”