Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to model the impact of geotourism on geoconservation by observing two popular geotourism activities, namely, rock climbing and hiking. It proposes that as much as geotourism activities have potential negative impacts, they can also bring about positive modification of critical ecosystems like that of Hell’s Gate National Park. Design/methodology/approach This research opted for an exploratory research design using both open and close-ended questionnaires from 351 respondents and was complemented by documentary analysis. The statistical relationship between geotourism activities and geoconservation was modelled through linear regression. Findings As predicted the computation using hiking and rock climbing to predict geoconservation were significant with p = 0.004 < 0.05 and p = 0.002 < 0.05, respectively. Implying that selected geotourism activity(s) are positively related to geoconservation Practical implications Recognizing the symbiotic relationship, values and relevance of geotourism to geoconservation as a dynamic approach to preservation of protected area management is central to promoting ecosystem stewardship and contributes to the achievement of United Nations development goals. Originality/value This paper fulfils an identified need to study how geotourism activities can be used to preserve/conserve the ecological environments and geoheritage of a destination
Highlights
Tourism is seen as a key pillar in the development of Kenya as envisioned in Vision 2030 [Government of Kenya, GOK (2007)]
3.1 Modelling geotourism activities and geoconservation To ascertain the variability of relationships between the dependent and independent variables
The results showed a significant positive contribution of hiking as a geotourism activity to geoconservation efforts
Summary
Tourism is seen as a key pillar in the development of Kenya as envisioned in Vision 2030 [Government of Kenya, GOK (2007)]. Geology and landscapes are everywhere and they have created interest and have become geotourism attractions (Nazaruddin, 2019). Kenya’s wild safaris and other forms of tourism are enriched by the geological formations and cannot be complete without a geological tour. Because of the complex relationship between tourism and the ecological environment, it is necessary to preserve and conserve her natural. The full terms of this licence may be seen athttp://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ legalcode
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