GEOSITE AND GEOMORPHOSITE ASSESSMENT FOR GEOTOURISM PURPOSE: A CASE STUDY FROM THE VIZOVICKA VRCHOVINA HIGHLAND, EASTERN MORAVIA

Geotourism can be understood at a broader sense as geographical tourism sustaining environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of residents of a place or in a more restricted sense as a form of nature tourism that specifically focuses on landscape and geology. Geological, geomorphological and pedological sites are the most important resource for the geotourism activities. It is evident that not every site can be used for geotourism purposes. To find out which site can be used, it is necessary to identify, describe and assess various sites using a suitable assessment methodology. Based on the definition and conceptsof geotourism and the assessment methods already used for geomorphosite assessment, authors propose five groups of assessment criteria. The method was used for assessing selected sites in the Vizovickavrchovina Highland (Eastern Moravia, Outer Western Carpathians). Thanks to the assessment of the sites in this region, some potential geotourism resources were identified. Although the proposed method is numerical which should reduce the subjectivity, there is always a degree of subjectivity due to the fact that the real value of some criteria cannot be measured and it depends on assessor's experience, knowledge and preferences