Introducing Geotourism to Diversify the Visitor Experience in Protected Areas and Reduce Impacts on Overused Attractions

Sri Lankan National Parks are highly popular among international and local visitors, as they offer close-up encounters with large animal species. Yala Park is one of the top five parks in country attracting larger crowds than any other especially during holiday season. Most visitors flock to park observe sought-after Asian Elephant Leopard. This has led safari operators pursuing these animals aggressively satisfy visitor expectations, thereby threatening wildlife populations. In this article, we present a straightforward methodology identify high-potential geotourism sites order diversify experiences means alleviate pressure from tourism. To sites, firstly study evaluated various place characteristics important for development geotourism, including scientific, tourism ‘additional’ value indicators. As result, three out four were selected promote Park. Secondly, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis was performed, which builds on results numerical evaluation but provides more in-depth narrative assessment. Ultimately, serves an example how seize opportunities that offers diversifying protected areas.