Karst Heritage as a Tourist Attraction: a Case Study in the White Desert National Park, Western Desert, Egypt

Abstract

Geotourism is a form of maintainable tourism that emphasizes the geoheritage characteristics of a district. Karst landforms are one of the most imperative appealing aspects of the theme of nature-based tourism. The geomorphological regionalization of the karst landforms contributes to a better understanding of Earthʼs evolution and provides the necessary provincial knowledge for resource utilization, ecological protection, and general economic improvement. To achieve this goal, an integrated geomorphological approach for inventorying, appraising, and evaluating sites of karst geoheritage within the framework of geomorphosite assessment method convoyed by SWOT analysis has been performed in the White Desert National Park (WDNP), Western Desert, Egypt. The paper aims to highlight the geotourism potential of the WDNP and offer strategic plans for identifying geotourist resources to a larger community through geoeducation and geoconservation. The WDNP is covered by Upper Cretaceous-Late Tertiary karstified carbonate successions and fluvioclastic rocks that host an interesting assemblage of diverse karst landforms (geodiversity) and amazing flora (bioturbation mangrove roots) together with fauna (biodiversity), revealing a geological open-air museum. The karst sites, which offer several phenomena with significant lithological, morphological, and paleogeographic features, embrace aesthetic, educational, scientific/scenic, and touristic values that will endure spectators of the geological evolution of this province. The brilliant conspicuousness, scientific excellence, innovative appeal, and distinctiveness of karst geomorphosites involving poljes/uvalas, karst lakes, natural sculptures, mushrooms, inselbergs, towers/bridges, dolines/sinkholes, cones/domes, and speleothems deliberate resources for the progress of geotourism. These landscapes can be considered tools for science and education because they give knowledge about rock/soil types and rock permeability, and paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic circumstances. Most of their landforms can be used as habitats for endangered bird species, which attract several sightseers, an indicative of ecological significance. This excellent karst geodiversity provides an appreciated tool for geotourism and geopark development that is preferred to raise the local economy for populations and reinforce rural growth in neighboring towns and cities. The paper’s findings reveal a comprehensive base for the improvement, planning, and management of the WDNP in order for it to become a geotourism endpoint. Furthermore, they improve the position of the WDNP in the tourist market and contribute to the local maintainable progress via giving socio-economic assistance to the local community for the advancement of geotourism through geoconservation and sustainability.

Inventory and assessment of geosites and geodiversity sites of the Ait Attab syncline (M’goun unesco Geopark, Morocco) to stimulate geoconservation, geotourism and sustainable development

“…Many researchers emphasise the importance of geoconservation (Gray 2004, Giurginca et al 2010, Dowling 2011, Prosser et al 2013, Ruban 2015, Brilha 2016, Khalaf 2022 as a means to enhance and promote areas of exceptional geodiversity. Geoconservation measures also aim to increase awareness of geoheritage to make it suitable for sustainable use (Kubalíková, Kirchner 2016) in geoeducation and geotourism.…”

Promoting diversity in geoheritage evaluation: creating an evaluation method for the scientific value of Quaternary sites in arid environments

“…Over the past decade, there has been a notable increase in the number of studies focused on geoheritage evaluation in arid environments, particularly in the MENA (Middle East-North Africa) region. This surge is especially evident in countries such as Iran [11,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50], Egypt [24,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] and Morocco [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67]. The majority of these investigations involve inventories or inventory-based evaluations, which correspond to the initial stages of geoheritage conservation proposed by Brilha [9].…”

Doğu Karadeniz’in Karstik Oluşumları: Karaca (Torul, Gümüşhane) ve Çal (Düzköy, Trabzon) Mağaralarının Jeoturizm Potansiyeli

“…Karstik alanlar jeolojik ve jeomorfolojik mirasın önemli öğeleridir ve turizm açısından jeomorfolojik yapıları ana tema olarak görülmekte, doğal peyzajı oluşturmakta ve turistlerin yoğun bir ilgisini de çekmektedir (Newsome ve Dowling, 2018). Ayrıca karstik yer şekilleri doğa temelli turizm temasının en önemli çekim yönlerinden birini de oluşturur (Khalaf, 2022). Karstik alanlar bulundukları doğal çevreden dolayı yüksek derecede; bilimsel, etnik, ekolojik (biyoçeşitlilik) ve estetik standartlara göre değerlendirilir (Panizza, 2001;Zgłobicki ve Baran-Zglobicka, 2013;Ruban, 2018;Tomić vd., 2019;Sena vd., 2021;Khalaf, 2022).…”

“…Ayrıca karstik yer şekilleri doğa temelli turizm temasının en önemli çekim yönlerinden birini de oluşturur (Khalaf, 2022). Karstik alanlar bulundukları doğal çevreden dolayı yüksek derecede; bilimsel, etnik, ekolojik (biyoçeşitlilik) ve estetik standartlara göre değerlendirilir (Panizza, 2001;Zgłobicki ve Baran-Zglobicka, 2013;Ruban, 2018;Tomić vd., 2019;Sena vd., 2021;Khalaf, 2022). Karstlaşmadan etkilenen alanlar; koruma-kullanma, turizmin geliştirilmesi ve bilimsel araştırmalar açısından çok yüksek bir değere de sahiptir (Van Beynen, 2011;Delle Rose vd., 2014;Ruban, 2018;Köroğlu ve Kandemir, 2019a;Köroğlu ve Mülayim, 2023).…”