Geoparks are essential assets for promoting sustainability and seeking to foster communion between local communities and nature in the context of deepening globalisation. As nature is an important tourist attraction factor, geoparks tend to become a prominent element of tourist destinations or even complete tourist destinations. The relationship with tourism represents an obvious opportunity for economic and community development but is, at the same time, a challenge for the management of a territory in need of finding balance between man and nature. In this way, the image that the geopark presents as a tourist destination must convey its values consistently so that the correct expectations can be generated among its potential visitors. Attributes such as the protection of nature and the appreciation of material and immaterial culture are expected. In a geopark, as part of its tourist exploration and promotion, different agents converge with various visions and aims that require conciliation. The creation of a tourist route is one of the most commonly used strategies to seek this conciliation and transmit a more uniform image of the tourist destination. In this sense, it is extremely useful to carry out studies of the image that a route presents to visitors. The main objective of this research is to examine how a geopark is portrayed online from the standpoint of destination management organisations (DMOs) and travel service providers, with an emphasis on routes as components that contribute to the enjoyment and development of the area. The current study focusses on the case of the Vis Archipelago UNESCO Global Geopark, in Croatia. The methodological options assumed are based on carrying out a content analysis of the websites of the various agents that promote the geopark and provide tourist services, such as accommodation, animation, and restaurants. In this way, 79 websites were selected whose contents were read in full, resulting in 554 references treated in categories using the Nvivo software. The categories used were: specific reference to the route, territorial, factual, cultural, sensorial, aesthetic, and sustainable aspects. The results show an evident predominance of territorial and factual references, and references to the existence of a route are still minimal. It is concluded that there is still no sense of confluence of agents around the route as a factor of appeal and that the projected image appears to lack more differentiating aspects for the tourist experience to be provided.

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Tourist Routes in Geoparks: The Image of the Vis Archipelago Geopark (Croatia) from the Perspective of the Tourist Supply

  • Mia Perić,
  • António José Pinheiro,
  • Hugo Martins,
  • Eduardo Gonçalves,
  • João Pedro Mendonça,
  • António J. D. V. T. Melo

摘要

Geoparks are essential assets for promoting sustainability and seeking to foster communion between local communities and nature in the context of deepening globalisation. As nature is an important tourist attraction factor, geoparks tend to become a prominent element of tourist destinations or even complete tourist destinations. The relationship with tourism represents an obvious opportunity for economic and community development but is, at the same time, a challenge for the management of a territory in need of finding balance between man and nature. In this way, the image that the geopark presents as a tourist destination must convey its values consistently so that the correct expectations can be generated among its potential visitors. Attributes such as the protection of nature and the appreciation of material and immaterial culture are expected. In a geopark, as part of its tourist exploration and promotion, different agents converge with various visions and aims that require conciliation. The creation of a tourist route is one of the most commonly used strategies to seek this conciliation and transmit a more uniform image of the tourist destination. In this sense, it is extremely useful to carry out studies of the image that a route presents to visitors. The main objective of this research is to examine how a geopark is portrayed online from the standpoint of destination management organisations (DMOs) and travel service providers, with an emphasis on routes as components that contribute to the enjoyment and development of the area. The current study focusses on the case of the Vis Archipelago UNESCO Global Geopark, in Croatia. The methodological options assumed are based on carrying out a content analysis of the websites of the various agents that promote the geopark and provide tourist services, such as accommodation, animation, and restaurants. In this way, 79 websites were selected whose contents were read in full, resulting in 554 references treated in categories using the Nvivo software. The categories used were: specific reference to the route, territorial, factual, cultural, sensorial, aesthetic, and sustainable aspects. The results show an evident predominance of territorial and factual references, and references to the existence of a route are still minimal. It is concluded that there is still no sense of confluence of agents around the route as a factor of appeal and that the projected image appears to lack more differentiating aspects for the tourist experience to be provided.