Development course of geological tourism

Since the establishment of the first hot spring national reserve in the United States, tourism with geological relics as its destination has gradually become popular. Many places in the world continue to explore and develop some beautiful or spectacular geological relics such as mountains and caves, which meet people's appreciation needs for wonders and landscapes and promote the vigorous development of world geological tourism activities. Generally speaking, the development process of geo-tourism in the modern sense can be roughly divided into two stages.

First, the budding stage (1832~ 1972)

Geological relics have a long history and have existed for thousands of years. People have long noticed those beautiful and magnificent geological relics and started to travel and explore these places, but their main purpose is to enjoy the natural beauty and relax. People don't pay attention to the geological and historical events in scenic spots and their influence on modern environment. Landscape development itself only pays attention to the development and promotion of landscapes with important appreciation value, and the interpretation system lacks the geological background and knowledge of landscapes. In the process of traveling, tourists only get the pleasant experience of enjoying the beautiful natural landscape, but do not get more spiritual enjoyment from traveling.

Second, the development stage (1973 to present)

In the past 30 years, the tourism industry has experienced a shift from focusing on highly standardized tourism services and no product differences to focusing on destination protection with a more cautious and smaller proportion. The real development of geo-tourism is mainly based on the recognition of places with beautiful and special landscapes that are often threatened by mass tourism, especially the establishment of world heritage and the establishment of geo-park network, which has expanded people's cognitive desire for strange natural geological phenomena, and geo-tourism activities have really entered a stage of rapid development.

1972 1 16 10 In October, UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in Paris at its 17 session. The Convention mainly stipulates the definitions of cultural heritage and natural heritage, as well as national and international measures to protect cultural and natural heritage. According to the Convention, each State Party may determine the cultural and natural heritage within its territory and submit a list of its own heritage to the World Heritage Committee for examination and approval by the World Heritage Congress. All sites listed in the world cultural and natural heritage are strictly protected by their countries according to law. 1976165438+10 The UNESCO World Heritage Committee was established in October. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is an intergovernmental organization, consisting of 2 1 member countries, and is responsible for implementing the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. At the same time, the World Heritage Committee also established the World Heritage Fund. 1978 the second world heritage congress approved 12 natural heritages such as Canadian nahani national park, American Yellowstone national park, Ecuadorian Galapagos islands and Ethiopian Simeon national park as the first batch of world heritage sites. At present, there are 9 1 1 world heritages in the world, including 704 cultural heritages, 80 natural heritages and 27 world natural and cultural heritages. Most of these world natural heritage sites contain important geological relics left over from the historical process of earth evolution, which have become important destinations for people to explore and understand the earth.

Although there are two examples in the evaluation criteria of natural heritage that emphasize that heritage sites must be the remains and processes of important geological events, which have played a certain role in the protection of geological heritage, it is more difficult for people to pay attention to the huge number of human cultural heritage and endangered species, and the lack of geoscientists in the evaluation team makes it very limited for natural heritage to enter the world heritage list.

These phenomena have attracted the attention of geologists and become the cause of promoting the protection of geological heritage and establishing geological parks. 1989, UNESCO, IUGS, IGCP and IUCN established the "Global List of Geological and Paleontological Sites" in Washington, D.C., with the aim of selecting suitable geological sites as candidate sites for inclusion in the World Heritage List. In, geologists from more than 50 countries published the Digne Declaration, that is, the International Declaration to Commemorate the Rights of the Earth. 1993 IUGS-Geosite project was officially launched, and developed countries have made great progress. However, due to the problem of conservation funds, the progress of countries varies greatly. 1997 From 2000 to 2000, the feasibility study of the geopark project was carried out under the organization of the Geological Department of UNESCO, and the final report was submitted to UNESCO headquarters. At the general meeting of UNESCO Executive Board in 20001year, a special motion was made to support its member countries to create natural parks (geological parks) in areas with unique geological characteristics. At this point, the activity of protecting geological heritage through the establishment of geological parks was officially launched. In 2000, Europe and China established the European Geopark Network and China National Geopark respectively. In 2003, the Geological Department of UNESCO officially issued the Guide to the World Geopark Network. In February, 2004, the first batch of 25 world geoparks were selected at UNESCO headquarters, including 8 in Europe 17 and China. In June of the same year, the first World Geopark Congress was held in Beijing, and the World Geopark Network Office was established in Beijing, China.

After the geological park was put forward and established, geological tourism began to be really valued and flourished around the world. National and local governments, geological survey departments and local communities have gradually discovered the benefits of geo-tourism, and various localities have set up geo-tourism federations or institutions, and promoted geo-tourism through television, newspapers and the Internet to support the transmission of available geological information to the public, such as the geological tourism network of Associazione Italiana di Geologie Turismo (G&T) in Canada. At present, geo-tourism has developed into a relatively mature tourism activity in Europe, but it is still a new tourism model in China, and it has an irresistible development trend.

At present, the main achievements of the development of world geo-tourism activities are as follows:

1. National parks have become an important carrier of geo-tourism activities.

Many famous national parks in the world are often such tourist attractions with dual functions. For example, the Grand Canyon National Park in the United States, on both sides of the canyon are cliffs formed by overlapping rock layers of various colors representing different geological ages, which are winding and colorful, and are famous geological tourist attractions; Known as the "Lucerne Glass Palace", the Swiss Glacier Garden consists of caves and caves eroded by ancient glaciers, and is famous in Europe for its prehistoric glacial remains (including alpine rocks-ice mushrooms, palm tree fossils, elephants, dinosaur fossils, etc.). ) and the human life pattern used to simulate the glacier scene and ice age of that year. There are also rich geological landscapes with ornamental and scientific research value in China, such as Shanwang Paleontological Fossil Reserve, which is known as "Natural Fossil Museum", Dashanpu Dinosaur Grottoes in Zigong, and Longmen Cave in Emei Mountain. The Triassic sedimentary facies stratigraphic profile is typical, with good outcrops and abundant fossils. There are "Top Ten Geological Landscapes" in guanxian-Mao Wen area featuring typical structural landscapes such as large fault planes, folds and tectonic rocks.

2. The unique geological tourism resources of world heritage sites attract a large number of tourists.

There are 9 1 1 heritage projects listed in the World Heritage List, including 180 world natural heritage projects and 27 world natural and cultural heritage projects. There are four evaluation criteria for the world natural heritage * * *, among which the eighth item is a typical example representing the main development stages of the earth's evolution, including the biological evolution process, the main geological evolution process in the topographic development or the important landform or topographic features; The seventh item refers to areas with wonderful natural phenomena or rare natural scenery and artistic value. Both standards include landscape elements of geological relics. Among the world natural heritages, there are 124 sites that meet the VII standard, 78 sites that meet the VIII standard, and 55 sites that meet these two standards.

It can be seen from the above that the earth evolution and biological evolution of the world natural heritage sites are the basic conditions, biodiversity is the accompanying conditions, and beautiful scenery is the appearance conditions (Liu Hongying and Wang Jianmin, 2004). Among the 180 world natural heritages listed in the World Heritage List, 144 has outstanding tourism geological resources. In the dual heritage of culture and nature, there are 15 heritage sites with outstanding tourism geological resources. These geological relics in the world natural heritage have important scientific value or constitute a region with outstanding natural beauty, which has become a beautiful landscape in the development of global tourism. For example, Yellowstone National Park in the United States has yellowstone lake, the largest alpine lake in the United States, and geysers known as the wonders of the world; The Grand Canyon National Park has the most spectacular canyon in the world, and its horizontal level shows the geological changes of the earth in the past 2 billion years. Carlsbad Cave National Park is a karst terrain area composed of 80 caves. Yosemite National Park has a large number of granite forms formed by glaciers, including "suspended" valleys, waterfalls, ice bucket lakes, ice domes, moraines and U-shaped valleys. Mammoth cave National Park has the world's largest natural caves and underground corridors composed of limestone landforms. There are a large number of fossils of Pleistocene series lakes and beach structures in WillandraLakes, Australia, and the Great Barrier Reef has the largest coral reef group and fascinating ocean in the world. Hurd Island and Heardand McDonald Islands have the only active volcanic islands in the sub-Antarctic and rare well-preserved early island ecosystems in the world. Purnurulululu National Park has a unique conical karst landform. Halong Bay in Vietnam has a spectacular seascape of limestone columns composed of 1600 islands and islets. Huangshan Mountain in China has a peculiar granite peak forest structure and its associated Huangshan Song Qi. Wulingyuan Scenic Area has more than 3,000 tapering sandstone columns and peaks, forming a unique landscape. Huanglong Scenic Area has spectacular limestone structures, waterfalls and hot springs. In the Three Parallel Rivers Reserve in Yunnan Province, the Yangtze River (Jinsha River), Lancang River (Mekong River) and Nujiang River (salween) run through canyons more than 3,000 meters deep and icebergs and snow peaks more than 6,000 meters above sea level. It can be seen that almost all the most spectacular and unique geological tourism resources in the world, such as canyons, waterfalls, snow-capped mountains and glaciers, Danxia peak forests, caves, springs and volcanoes, have been preserved in the world natural heritage. Therefore, strengthening the study of geo-tourism in world natural heritage sites is an important guarantee to realize the protection of world natural heritage and the sustainable development of "heritage tourism".

World Heritage is a high-level human heritage appraised by international experts and confirmed by the World Heritage Committee. As an "international tourist destination with a wide-area tourism market", the attraction of world heritage to tourists is incomparable to other tourist destinations. Through high-grade "heritage tourism", people can not only enjoy a high-level life, but also enhance all-round contact with nature and society, broaden their horizons, increase their knowledge, obtain information, restore their physical strength, improve their health, and devote themselves to study, work and life in a brand-new state. It can be predicted that when human beings enter the period of economic development, "heritage tourism" will be an indispensable part of high-quality, natural, historical and social life. Heritage ecotourism protects the ecosystem of heritage sites and respects the integrity of local communities; Heritage research tourism promotes new discoveries; Heritage root-seeking tourism promotes national cultural traditions and enhances family ties. As a world phenomenon, "heritage tourism" is one of the most effective forms for human beings to seek harmony in the external world (Tao Wei, 200 1).

3. A multi-level network system of geoparks has been formed.

1February, 1999, UNESCO formally put forward the planning of geopark, and at the same time gave birth to a new name of geopark. At the annual meeting of the Executive Committee of UNESCO's international geological comparison plan held in February 2002, the original department of UNESCO (now the Department of Ecology and Geology) proposed to establish a geopark network, namely the World Geopark Network. Since 2004, the network has formally absorbed 25 members from China and Europe. By 20 10 and 10, the network has 77 members, distributed in 24 countries around the world, including 24 in China, 8 in Britain, 7 in Italy, 5 in Germany, 5 in Spain, 4 in Japan, 4 in Greece, 2 in France, 2 in Portugal, 2 in Norway, and 2 in Austria, Iran and Brazil.

The European Geopark Network was established in June 2000, initiated by Provence Geopark, Lesvos Petrochemical Forest Geopark, Mount Eiffel Geopark and Maestre Geopark. At present, the European Geopark Network consists of 37 Geoparks from 15 EU countries, which promotes the protection and sustainable development of European geological relics and the upsurge of geological tourism in Europe.

1985, a geologist in China suggested establishing a geopark in an area with important geological significance and beautiful geological landscape, but the pace of starting was relatively slow. It was not until 1998 that the Ministry of Land and Resources cooperated with relevant departments to promote the development of this cause. At this point, all localities began to actively respond to the establishment of geological parks. China is the first country in the world to officially name and establish a national geopark in the name of the government, and announced the first batch of 1 1 national geoparks on March 6, 2006. At the end of the same year, the second batch of 33 national geoparks were evaluated; In March 2004, the Ministry of Land and Resources awarded Wu Wangshan and other 4 1 units the title of National Geopark. In 2009, 44 National Geoparks were awarded, and so far, * * * National Geoparks 182 have been awarded.

4. Organize various series of related geo-tourism conferences on a regular basis.

Since 1997, UNESCO and the World Geological Society have held various meetings, exchanged academic and construction experiences, established a network of geological parks, promoted the exchange of geological heritage sites, and actively promoted the development of geological tourism in all countries of the world. Since the first World Geopark Congress was held in Beijing from June 27th to July 7th, 2004, the World Geopark Congress has been held for four times. The first World Geophysical Tourism Congress was successfully held in fremantle, Australia in August 2008, and the second World Geophysical Tourism Congress was successfully held in Malaysia in April 20 10. The International Geopark Development Seminar is held in China World Geopark in turn every two years, and has been held for three times so far. Since 200 1 the first European Geopark Congress was held in Lesvos, Greece, the European Geopark Congress has been held once a year. With the support of UNESCO, the first Asia-Pacific Geopark Network Conference was successfully held in a Geopark in Rangoon Reef, Malaysia on June 5438+065438+ 10, 2007, and the second Asia-Pacific Geopark Network Conference was successfully held in Taishan, Shandong, China in 2009. These meetings discussed the successful experience of developing geo-tourism, future cooperation with other countries and research institutions, and how the geo-park network will develop and grow in the future.

5 around the establishment of geological tourism development and management institutions.

In terms of management and publicity, many countries, local governments, institutions or communities have set up special geo-tourism cooperation alliances or organizations to regulate the construction of geo-parks and the management and publicity of geo-tourism activities. UNESCO started to create the World Geopark Network on 1999; Europe established the European Geopark Network in 2000; China, which actively participated in the creation and protection of geoparks, formally established the "National Geological Heritage Protection (Geopark) Leading Group" in August 2000, and set up the "National Geological Heritage (Geopark) Evaluation Committee" in its office, and awarded the first batch of national geoparks on March 5438+0, 2006, thus gradually carrying out the evaluation and construction management of China National Geopark. The main purpose of these organizations is to protect geological heritage, standardize the development and construction of geological parks, support environmental education, scientific research and training, and the formulation of geoscience laws, environmental publicity and sustainable development policies, and make local residents understand the value of geological heritage so as to better actively participate in the revival of regional culture.