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.
Highlights
Special geological formations have long attracted visitors worldwide
The general aim of this paper is to systematically review scientific literature on geotourism published in the two decades since the first official definition of geotourism term was put forward in 1995, in order to identify (i) what knowledge has been produced on geotourism in the scientific literature; and (ii) what trends are evolving in geotourism research
The results of the present literature review show that the most commonly researched topics include the description, inventorying, or assessment of the geoheritage and geotourism potential of the study areas, issues connected with geotourism and geoheritage management in existing or potential geotourism destinations, tools for geoheritage promotion, models for geosite/geomorphosite assessment and other methodological approaches, as well as the perceptions and motivations of tourists
Summary
Special geological formations have long attracted visitors worldwide. In Iceland most travelogues written by foreign visitors in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries state that the country’s geological formations were the major reason for their visits. According to Hose [1], the geology-based tourism in England has its origins in the late seventeenth century. It is likely that it came about in the same period in other countries. Geotourism is relatively new [2,3]. It was first formulated just over twenty years ago by Hose [4], who defined geotourism as:
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