Geosites and Geotourism in the Local Development of Communities of the Andes Mountains. A Case Study

Abstract

The inventory and assessment of a geosite in a territory provides a sound basis for the protection and use of its geological heritage. This article aims to evaluate the most relevant geosites in the province of Chimborazo (Ecuador), applying the Spanish Inventory of Sites of Geological Interest (IELIG, in Spanish) method, and proposing alternatives for geotourism development in the studied area. The methodological process was based on: (i) the inventory and preliminary selection of geosites; (ii) a semi-quantitative geosite assessment and proposal of travel itineraries for geotourism; and (iii) the application of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) matrix to establish geotourism development strategies within a framework of sustainability. The global assessment of scientific, tourist, and academic interests demonstrates that 25% of the 20 evaluated geosites have very high interest and 75% have high interest. The top three geosites with the highest degrees of interest are the Chimborazo Volcano, known as ‘Earth’s Closest Point to the Sun’, the Pallatanga geological fault, and the geosite named Comunidad Cacha. The SWOT analysis reveals that travel itineraries that combine cultural heritage elements and geosites could offer a real alternative for the region’s sustainable development through geotourism.

Georoutes as a Basis for Territorial Development of the Pacific Coast of South America: a Case Study

“…Although the Ecuadorian government has recently proposed a tourist route, known as the Spondylus route (Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas 2013 ), in the province, our aim was to create strategic itineraries with significant scientific, educational, and tourism values seeking the development of local communities. Similar initiatives have been published in other provinces of the country by the CIPAT-ESPOL research group (Carrión-Mero et al 2021b , a ).…”

Assessment of Geosites within a Natural Protected Area: A Case Study of Cajas National Park

“…Within the country, some of the few evaluations of geosites with glacial origin are those carried out in the Chimborazo Province [95] and Ruta Escondida (Quito) [96,97]. These studies presented significant values for promotion and sustainable management.…”

An Evaluation of the Importance of Smart Tourism Tools in the Riobamba Canton, Ecuador

“…In addition, it is worth mentioning that mobile applications are tools that after their implementation usually require little financial input, apart from the costs of maintenance and further development [55]. Very few similar studies were found in the international literature, although many studies have been found to deal with smart tourism and smart tourism tools [8,19,21,23,25,29,34,47,48] and there is a fact that such studies are lacking in Ecuador. For this reason, it is recommended to find innovative ways of increasing the frequency of collecting relevant tourist data so that the local tourist industry can be more connected to the requirements of the tourists, making it able to update its offerings on smart and sustainable tourist products, an approach that could be helpful since a successful implementation of smart tourism destinations has the potential of attracting foreign direct investment, thus ensuring sustainable development [56].…”

“…Currently, about 35% of Ecuadorians purchase products or services over the Internet, tourism services being one of the categories with the highest consumption [18]. The province of Chimborazo hosts many tourist attractions belonging to the natural and sociocultural categories and attracts a considerable number of national and international tourists year after year [19]. Within the province, the Riobamba Canton is known to hold tourist attractions with a lot of potential and the Development Plan of Riobamba "20-30" indicates that the cantonal government seeks to use the latest technologies to enhance the attendance to these attractions in the next 10 years [20].…”