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Assessing Geosites for Geotourism Development: Case Studies from the Southern Part of Sri Lanka

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Abstract

Although Sri Lanka is known for its many geodiverse attractions, it has not fully recognized and capitalized on its potential to promote geotourism. This study evaluates the potential of two geotourism case study areas, Ussangoda and the Kudawella blowhole, in the southern part of the island which is well frequented by tourists. We provide a blueprint on how to assess the development potential of geotourism sites by employing three types of analyses: Firstly, we estimated the numerical value of various characteristics of the sites important for the development for geotourism, including their scientific, tourism, and conservation values along with the value added by other (non-geotourism) features. Secondly a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis was performed which builds on the results from the numerical evaluation but provides a more in-depth narrative evaluation. Thirdly, the SWOT analysis can be extended and used to generate a threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths (TOWS) matrix which identifies the relationships between these factors and enables to select strategies by providing a succinct tabular overview as the basis for tourism development strategies. We exemplified this multi-step analysis on the Ussangoda and Kudawella blowhole and identified that both sites harbor significant potential as geotourism sites. A private–public partnership between communities and local authorities, as well as universities should be considered to develop geotourism in Sri Lanka.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Art, Business, Law & Social Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, Perth, WA, 6150, Australia

    Daminda Sumanapala

  2. Tourism Research Cluster (TRC), Faculty of Business and Law, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

    Daminda Sumanapala

  3. Department of Environmental Geography, Institute of Geonics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Drobného 28, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Lucie Kubalíková

  4. Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space, School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Isabelle D. Wolf

  5. Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Isabelle D. Wolf

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  1. Daminda Sumanapala
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  2. Lucie Kubalíková
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  3. Isabelle D. Wolf
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Correspondence to Daminda Sumanapala.

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Sumanapala, D., Kubalíková, L. & Wolf, I.D. Assessing Geosites for Geotourism Development: Case Studies from the Southern Part of Sri Lanka. Geoheritage 13, 85 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-021-00608-1

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