Geotourism assessment of the northwestern part of the Gerecse Mountains, Hungary

Geotourism is a relatively new sector in tourism, in which visitors are offered earth scientific knowledge when visiting spectacular locations (geosites or geotopes) and participating in various organized activities there. Areas and sites with high geological-geomorphological relevance are usually managed by national parks, geoparks or other types of nature reserves. For this reason, research into the assessment of these sites serves not only the purposes of geoscience but also those of these organisations and, through them, tourism.

The aim of our research was to carry out a quantitative geotourism assessment in the NW part of the Gerecse Mts, Hungary, on an area of 180 km². As this type of assessment determining geotourism potential has not been made here before, the Gerecse Mountains are still undiscovered in terms of quantitative geotourism values. However, this area has great geodiversity due to its earth scientific richness (its various and spectacular geosites are mainly from the Mesozoic, but Eocene, Miocene and Quaternary sediments are also present). It has strong connections to culture and human activities: it is an important source of building stones since Roman times.

We used analogue geological and topographic maps, publications, and databases to identify potential geosites. The selected sites were ranked based on their types (e.g., cliff, quarry, break of slope) and distance from trails. They were visited on site – omitting the least important ones based on the preliminary categorization. Following the fieldwork, the potential geosites were evaluated based on quantitative assessment models that have been used in Hungary several times. We applied the Geosite Assessment Model (GAM, Vujičić et al., 2011) and the Modified Geosite Assessment Model (M-GAM, Tomič & Božić, 2014). Among objective aspects, the latter involves tourists (from other studies) into the evaluation process, thus giving a more realistic image of the geotourism potential of the given geosite. The final score of an object is built up by scientific, infrastructural and this visitor-based values. In the end of the work, each geosite got an analysis on its improvable characteristics, and a group of them were selected as suitable for later geotourism activities and development.

The results (more than 100 evaluated geotopes) contribute to the geosite cadastral of the Gerecse Mts – providing useful data for the management body – the Duna-Ipoly National Park Diretorate. Suitable protection and tourism activity measures of local earth science values can be planned using our results – these two factors are the base of a good balance between nature and society.

EH is supported by the ÚNKP-21-2 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.

 

Tomić, N., & Božić, S. (2014). A modified Geosite Assessment Model (M-GAM) and its Application on the Lazar Canyon area (Serbia). International Journal of Environmental Research, 8(4), 1041-1052.

Vujičić, M., Vasiljević, D., Marković, S., Hose, T., Lukić, T., Hadžić, O., & Janićević, S. (2011). Preliminary geosite assessment model (GAM) and its application on Fruška Gora Mountain, potential geotourism destination of Serbia. Acta Geographica Slovenica, 51(2), 361-377.