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

A Methodology for Examining Geotourism Potential at the Kruger National Park, South Africa

GeoJournal of Tourism and Geosites

In contrast to Europe, Asia and South America where geotourism is actively pursued, geotourism activities in South Africa have not to-date been a focus of tourism products. The purpose of this paper is to propose a field methodology that can be used to assess the potential for geotourism development. Existing procedures to establish geotourism site potential are reviewed and a new methodology that accounts for more characteristics than currently found in documented methods is proposed. This consists of three phases: creating a standardised manner of inventorying the sites; standardising field rank scoring for each site by geotourism value, cultural value, ecological sensitivity, accessibility, de velopment requirements, currently available academic literature, and, developing a final multi-site database assisting the South African National Parks to preserve geoheritage sites. Based on previous studies, the Kruger National Park has geoheritage sites that could form the basis for geot...

Challenges of Geotourism in South Africa: A Case Study of the Kruger National Park

Resources

As a new phenomenon, geotourism research is on the rise. Although South Africa has some interesting geoheritage sites, not much has been done to investigate the potential contribution of geotourism to the tourism sector, the protection of natural resources and employment generation, let alone the challenges that may be experienced in promoting geotourism. Therefore, this paper aims to describe the concept of geotourism and to identify the challenges of geotourism. It achieves this by looking at the case of the Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in Africa, containing an abundance of geotourism sites. This research adopted a qualitative approach, with data collection involving semi-structured interviews with sixteen key informants to understand the challenges of geotourism. Manual content analysis was employed for analysing the data. A significant finding was that there were seven potential challenges in promoting and developing geotourism in the Kruger National Pa...

Rural geotourism as an option for development in Phuthaditjhaba : Golden Gate National Park area , South Africa

2018

Geotourism is a dynamic and competitive industry taking a clear and certain form in its development. One of the Geotourism products which is growing under the umbrella of rural tourism is the recently named notion of ‘Rural Geotourism’. Studies of tourist motivations have improved understanding of travel motivations and in segmenting the markets, thus allowing tourism marketers to allocate scarce tourism resources more efficiently. Segmentation is often viewed as a very powerful and useful instrument to market goods and services to targeted markets and targeted groups. Segmentation techniques based on motivations provide insights that destination marketers could use in developing and promoting their tourism destinations more effectively. This paper identifies the main drivers for travellers to participate in rural geotourist activities in different times of the year. The main purpose of this study is to characterise rural geotourists’ motivations undertaking their rural geotourism e...

Geoparks, Geoheritage and Geotourism : Opportunities and Tools In Sustainable Development of the Territory

This paper presents a case study of the La Salata geoarchaeological site (National Park of Gargano, southern Italy), where the cultural value of the necropolis is in addition to that geological, linked to the presence of one of the most beautiful Mediterranean exhibitions of Eocene bioclastic limestone facies at Nummulites and the presence of karst landforms. The site is an excellent example of integration of environmental and cultural values that favor an increase of cultural tourism for the benefit of communities and local businesses. However, the site should be subject to protection through initiatives to consolidate the fronts of slopes subject to rockfalls and often affected by the cavity collapses. In this sense, the most attention has been offered by the private rather than public sectors, including in these last the national, regional and local Authorities.

Modelling the impact of geo-tourism on geo-conservation of Hell’s Gate National Park in Kenya

Ecofeminism and Climate Change

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 r...

Why it is not enough to have beautiful rock art sites to attract tourists? Challenges facing cultural heritage tourism in a remote area, Limpopo Province, South Africa

2022

Starting from the observation that having exceptional rock art sites is not enough on its own to attract tourists, we used a case of study in the Makgabeng to analyse the challenges many remote areas face when trying to develop rock art tourism. Several initiatives to attract tourists to cultural heritage sites in the province have been launched since the late 2000s, without producing the anticipated growth in visitor numbers. The study combines empirical and qualitative analyses of data obtained from field observations, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews, all conducted in 2019. In addition, grey literature (i.e. reports, tourist guides' feedback, etc.), and tourism websites were used to investigate whether comparative research from the uKhahlamba Drakensberg mountains could be applied to address visitor numbers in the Makgabeng. In terms of practical applications, identifying obstacles to development and the sustainability of initiatives, our results may help stakeholders orientate their actions. From a methodological perspective, our study shows the value of using a systemic and multiscale approach to analyse factors that impact a given place, and the interactive and evolving dynamics linking these factors on different spatial levels. This type of analysis provides a synoptic and holistic assessment of the challenges facing tourist development projects in remote areas.