Perception of local population towards development of geotourism in Malta

Abstract

Geotourism is an emerging type of tourism, which in recent years has gained popularity in a global scale. There are more and more geoparks being organised and designated in various parts of the world. Similarly the number of tourists interested in geological beauty of their destination raises which enhances fast development of geotourism infrastructure, such as geoparks. In geotourism the main focus is on protecting the natural geological heritage of the region, by creation of parks, which main purpose is to preserve valuable geological features for the future generations. Additionally high importance in geotourism is put also on education and promoting knowledge connected to landform processes that have shaped the landscape over the years. Education on those geological sites is especially important, since it raises awareness of environmental issues among the visitors, thus providing them with understanding why it is important to protect such sites. Since the development of geotourism requires substantial help from the local population, both in terms of creating and later management of the sites, it was appreciated that more research on local population鈥檚 perceptions should be performed in order to their opinions about that matter. The following research was performed in Malta and targeted the perceptions on Maltese citizens towards prospective development of geotourism infrastructure on the island.