Geoheritage and the potential of Geotourism in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa (original) (raw)

The aim of this paper is to explore the potential of geological heritage (geoheritage) in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, which is an important milestone towards geotourism development. Drawing on focus group discussions with the Golden Gate community members, key informant interviews, personal observations and a questionnaire administered to a random sample of one hundred visitors to the park, it was established that the Golden Gate montane community would significantly benefit from the geoheritage in the park provided urgent conservation measures are proposed and implemented. The research further established that rather than the park concentrating on the promotion of conservation and marketing of mountain biodiversity, the montane community would potentially benefit from conserving the available geo heritage in the park which is an important milestone towards geotourism development. The research concludes that there is a serious need of developing a comprehensive marketin...