Abstract
Geological heritage (geo-heritage) is a resource for geoscience, geo-education, and geo-tourism. Geo-tourist attractions differ in their physical visibility, interpretation (clarity), and aesthetic attractiveness. These three characteristics determine perception of visitors and, thus, the importance of attractions. An integrative parameter, namely specific visibility, is proposed for qualitative geo-tourism resource evaluation. This parameter is examined for all geo-heritage types, and some relevant examples from southwest Russia are considered. The geo-heritage types differ in their specific visibility. For instance, when landforms like the Granite Gorge in the Western Caucasus (geomorphological type) are well-visible, geochemical processes like the heavy metal cycling in the Don River delta and the Pelenkino mud lake (geo-chemical type) are not as visible. Such a difference should be taken into account when geo-tourism resources of any area or a geopark are evaluated. The lower the specific visibility, the higher the costs for professional interpretation and demand for advanced infrastructure solutions.
Highlights
Geological heritage is a unique geological phenomena
Geo-heritage types really differ in their specific visibility (Table 1)
As specific visibility is thought to be an important determinant of geo-tourism resource value, the localities with palaeontological, mineralogical, geothermal, geomorphological, hydrological, and geohistorical should be identified as the most important for creation of geo-tourist attractions
Summary
The conceptual basis for the relevant judgments has been summarized recently by Reynard and Brilha [1]. Geo-heritage has been recognized recently as an important resource bringing socio-economic benefits. Geo-heritage has value to scientists needing appropriate objects for research, educators needing explanation of some basic knowledge to students and their training, and tourists interested in learning more about the nature. Three kinds of geo-heritage resources can be recognized, namely geoscience resources, geo-education resources, and geo-tourism resources (Figure 1). The latter are of special economic importance because geoparks and other geology-related attractions bring direct profit, as well as facilitating the entire tourism industry growth because of diversification of tourism
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