Abstract
Geotourism represents a powerful and new form of sustainable tourism that has rapidly expanded worldwide over the last decades. To promote it, the use of digital and geomatic tools is becoming of increasing importance. Especially mobile information represents one of the most efficient and smart ways to bring geotourism closer to a wide audience. This applies in particular to rural and inner areas, where the exploitation of geoheritage can represent a crucial resource for eco-friendly and sustainable tourism development. With the aim to promote geotourism on a regional scale, we have implemented a mobile devise application for Molise region, tested in the Alto Molise area. This application, called MoGeo App, aims at providing diversified geotourism information that combines geologic attractions (geosites and geologic itineraries) with other possible tourist attractions (other sites of natural and cultural interest), to respond to differentiated interests and needs of a wide audience. Besides geotourism purposes, the structure of MoGeo App can be used also for other purposes such as educational targets, by adapting contents and language. It appears to be a flexible, easily updatable digital tool, adaptable to various target groups, as well as other regional contexts, both inside and outside of Italy.
Highlights
Geotourism, understood as a form of tourism that focuses on geology and landscape [1,2,3,4,5,6], represents a powerful and relatively new form of sustainable tourism [7,8]
The selection of geosites to be included in the App was based on the criteria safety, accessibility, scenic-aesthetic qualities, and interpretative potential that are in essence the selection criteria proposed by Brilha [73] for the qualitative assessment of sites suitable for geotourism use
Two further products were included in MoGeo App: A geolithological map and a glossary of scientific terms
Summary
Geotourism, understood as a form of tourism that focuses on geology and landscape [1,2,3,4,5,6], represents a powerful and relatively new form of sustainable tourism [7,8]. Geotourism focuses on geoheritage and on geosites that are the most essential part of it [5,9,11,12,13] It represents an important alternative or integration to more traditional forms of tourism, such as sun and sand tourism, and cultural tourism. Traditional and mass tourist destinations are generally scarce or lacking, and major tourist attractions are typically related to the geodiversity and naturalness of the landscape [19,20,21,22,23] It is in such areas that the geo-landscape and the related geodiversity, biodiversity and cultural values [5,24,25] become important drivers for the local and regional economy
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