The Scenic Beauty of Geosites and Its Relation to Their Scientific Value and Geoscience Knowledge of Tourists: A Case Study from Southeastern Spain

Scenic beauty is one of the most-commonly used indicators in inventory and assessment geosites for geoconservation, geoheritage management geotourism development. It an important driver tourists to visit natural areas it also provides support protection heritage. Previous studies on scenic mainly focused landscape preference physical characteristics that affect appreciation. The relationships between geosites, their scientific value geoscience knowledge has not been empirically investigated detail. Hence, this study investigates relationship using 34 from southeastern Spain. For purpose, 29 respondents with a background who all visited 43 but did 104 no participated survey. first group rated based direct field during which these was given. On other hand, latter two groups representative photos geosites. A five-point Likert scale rate We found significant value, becomes more if geoscientific increases. One-way ANOVA results indicated contributed higher perceived beauty, especially those general were considered as by respondent groups. viewpoints received ratings.