Crudely put, geotourism is travelling to visit rocks. But there is a broader definition that encompasses interpretation and conservation.
While archaeological, historical and industrial sites have been protected and promoted for tourism for many years, there is not much public awareness of the geology that underpins all this.
With the exception of dinosaurs, volcanoes and earthquakes, there has been little attempt to communicate the earth sciences in a popular way.
But recent initiatives could soon encourage those visiting established holiday destinations to bring rock hammers along with their buckets and spades.
The creation of geological World Heritage Sites such as the Jurassic Coast in Dorset and east Devon, and European Geoparks including the North Pennines and the Abberley and Malvern Hills, has been responsible for an increase in nature-based tourism.
Other areas known for their rich geological exposures such as the Yorkshire coast, where dinosaur footprints can be found, have started promoting themselves as geological destinations.
And museums have a key role to play in this development, not least because they hold the collections that have come from the finds of amateur and professional geologists.
Jonathan Larwood, a geologist and palaeontologist working for the Environmental Impacts Team at government conservation agency English Nature, says museums should create two-way traffic, with their visitors going out into the landscape to see rock formations and fossils, and holidaymakers and walkers being drawn into museums.
'Britain has landscapes that attract visitors from all over the world,' he says. 'We have great diversity in geology, ranging from some of the oldest rocks in the world, in north-west Scotland, to the more recent deposits of Neogene times in south-east England.
'But how much do people know of the fascinating stories behind the formation of these landscapes? And are they able to access information, at an appropriate level of interpretation, that helps reveal these great stories from geological time?'
A fossil hunters' voluntary code, similar to the country code, exists to instill good practice; it says hunters should look among recent landslips rather than hacking away at cliff faces, for example.
But Larwood warns that the balance between the desired growth in tourism and the preservation of the geological resource on which it is based has to be respected. 'It has to ensure that the environment remains undamaged, and wherever possible, enhanced,' he says.
'Many sites are robust and can withstand large numbers of visitors, but where they are sensitive or restricted, care must be taken to manage visitor access and site use. It will have little impact where sites are extensive and frequently renewed as in eroding coasts, but where they are not readily renewed, fossil collecting needs to be tailored to the available resource.'
William Smith could perhaps be considered the first geotourist. Smith is known as the father of English geology for his late 18th-century investigations into rock strata and for producing the first geological map of England and Wales, published in 1815. His colour coding of rock strata is still used by geologists today.
Smith was the first to recognise that the age of rock strata could be estimated by looking at the fossils they contained, and his discoveries were invaluable to the landowners, canal builders and mine owners of the Industrial Revolution.
Smith established geology as a science, but he was also interested in the interpretation of his findings. He was closely involved in the development of the Rotunda Museum, which opened in 1829 in Scarborough, where he lived in his later years. The museum was designed to display the amazing fossil finds from the Yorkshire coastline.
'Smith suggested the design to facilitate the sharing of what was then state-of-the-art ideas about geology, and he also encouraged people to go out onto the coast to look for fossils,' says Jane Mee, the museums and galleries officer at Scarborough Borough Council.
The founding principles of the Rotunda Museum were somewhat lost over the years and it became a museum of local history. But now the Rotunda is to be redeveloped as a centre of geology for the region, building on the success of the Yorkshire Dinosaur Coast Project, now in its sixth year. The scheme will cost about £3m and the museum will close in January 2006 for a reopening in spring 2007.
'The museum will function as a gateway to the Dinosaur Coast,' explains Mee. 'We want to blur the boundaries between the collections and the geological heritage of the coast, where you can see dinosaur footprints and collect fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods just five minutes' walk from the town.'
The renovated museum will include a gallery devoted to Smith; the Dinosaur Coast Visitor Centre; and Geology Now, a gallery supported by the oil company Shell, which will showcase current research. To reflect its new emphasis, it will be renamed the Rotunda, the William Smith Museum of Geology.
'We want geology to be to Scarborough what art is to St Ives,' says Mee, who is working with English Nature and other partners to set up a fossil registration scheme so that interesting finds are logged and, if significant, acquired for the museum.
But geologist Tom Hose is concerned that the concept of geotourism is being exploited. Hose, a principal lecturer in the leisure and tourism department at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, has also worked in museums.
He says he coined the term geotourism about 12 years ago as a way of looking at geology collections and sites together and promoting them as something of interest to the public, and not just for the scientific community. But he believes this holistic opportunity has been lost on many organisations.
'Geology doesn't have a good brand image,' Hose says. 'When you visit a geology site it's a one off, whereas with archaeology it's usually part of a sequence promoted by English Heritage, and marked on Ordnance Survey maps as well as local tourist boards. There's a need for a common scheme, for example with printed materials and typography.'
From archaeology to social history, many museum collections are based on geology and geomorphology, the shaping of the landscape, says Hose: 'Geology produced the raw materials for industry that underpinned the Industrial Revolution, and this is encapsulated in many museum collections across the country. But geologists never get a look in.
'Geology in general is suffering a decline,' Hose continues. 'There are very few geology curators left, and field trips in schools, colleges and universities are discouraged because of costs and health and safety requirements. There is also the tendency for biology-based and industrial archaeological conservation organisations to try to prettify and gentrify the sites.'
Worse, many geology collections have been allowed to decline, with one famously ending up in a redundant fire station in the early 1990s. 'Many sites are being lost due to landfill, but while mu-seums are repositories for material from these sites the link has not been made,' Hose says.
He says there are a few excellent examples of geology displays, citing the Reading the Rocks gallery in the Ludlow Museum. 'This museum has an excellent display that links into a geology teaching trail and a geology trail for the public.'
The Jurassic Coast stretches from Exmouth in east Devon to Old Harry Rocks in Purbeck, Dorset, and contains 185 million years of evolution. It was nominated a World Heritage Site in 2001.
The main focus for fossil collecting is the area around Charmouth and Lyme Regis, where the 12-year-old Mary Anning discovered a complete ichthyosaur fossil, a giant fish lizard, in 1811.
The Jurassic Coast team is developing the coastline for geotourism, and David Tucker, the museums adviser at Dorset County Council, is looking for funding for a package of initiatives to help local museums the length of the coast.
'It will really make a difference,' says Tucker. 'The West Country model is lots of small, accredited community museums often run on a voluntary basis. Some, such as Dorchester, have spectacular finds, but lack the opportunities to properly tell the Jurassic Coast story.'
There will be four main strands to the Jurassic Coast museum initiative: recruiting and training more volunteers; running more events for locals and tourists; curatorial back-up to help with specific collections and with conservation; and branding so that the museums all have a similar design style.
'Events are a great way of making new audiences,' says Tucker. 'And you have to remember that there are people with mobility problems who can't walk up the cliffs or scramble over rocks. While we will lead on geology, it will also include human history.
'For example, Bridport has a fishing and net-making heritage - the goal nets for the 1966 World Cup were made here - and it is all a construct of the coast's geology and geomorphology. The museums will achieve a greater sense of working in partnership and a greater sense of identity, which we should be able to pass on to visitors but which will also serve the local environment.'
Deborah Mulhearn is a freelance journalist
www.europeangeopark.org
http://whc.unesco.org
www.jurassiccoast.com
Ludlow Museum, Shropshire
Given its size, Shropshire contains an incredible variety of rock formations, which cover most of the geological periods of time. As a result, its local authority-run museums own internationally important collections, particularly at Ludlow and Much Wenlock.
Ludlow also has a new library and museum resource centre that holds a representative collection of the county's geology. To capitalise on the county's riches and address the decline in the teaching of geology, and particularly field trips, the county museum service has set up a geology teaching trail aimed primarily at A-level students and their teachers.
'The idea is to provide a complete package with accommodation, lectures and fieldwork leaders,' says geologist Daniel Lockett, the curator of natural sciences at the Ludlow Museum.
'We approached an exam board that offers geology, now the only one that does, so the trail ties into national curriculum requirements. And we are working with a local quarry to obtain access to particular rock sections. We will provide the expertise and the collections and access to areas of study outside.
'One of my main concerns is that people don't know enough about us and our fantastic stories,' Lockett continues. 'Universities know about the vast variety of fossils and rock sections to be found in the county, but we want to spread this awareness out to schools, sixth-form colleges and the general public.'
Naracoorte Caves National Park, Australia
Naracoorte Caves are a series of limestone caves about 240 miles south-east of Adelaide, in southern Australia. Twenty-six of the caves are in the Naracoorte Caves National Park, administered by South Australia's Department for Environment and Heritage.
Four of the caves are open to the public. They contain live stalagmites and stalactites, marine fossils and lots of animal remains, including the bones of many extinct marsupials.
The number of visitors to the caves fell over the years because the displays were not refreshed, but the site's inscription as a World Heritage Site in 1994 was the catalyst for new investment.
In 1998 the Wonambi Fossil Centre opened and with better promotion and an expanded range of facilities, annual visitor numbers have risen by 30,000 during the past six years to reach 70,000.
As part of an overall strategy to offer experiences to a wider range of people, Naracoorte Caves has worked with the South Australian Museum in Adelaide to deliver roadshows at the caves and other geological sites. Classrooms in the Caves saw 1,300 students learning with museum education officers, curators and palaentologists.
Workshops topics included fossils, bats, ancient marine life, arachnophobia, geology and minerals. There was also a Day of Treasures for families and the local community, which included curator talks and walks, the museum's own Batman, fossil factory, Pleistocene Park and a family fossil dig.
'The South Australian Museum is a major scientific research organisation concerned with understanding the natural and cultural environment in which we live through exploring and documenting its diversity,' says Tim Flannery, the director of the South Australian Museum.
'The opportunity for us to meet and talk with people about a range of contemporary science issues, particularly those related to the environment and future sustainability, is very exciting.'
Manx Museum, Isle of Man
'Our philosophy is that the whole island is a museum,' says Kate Hawkins, the curator of natural history at the Manx Museum.
The Isle of Man has several significant geological sites, one of which at Niarbyl has been the focus of discovery of new geological strata. Many of the heritage sites, including Niarbyl itself, are owned by Manx National Heritage, which also runs most of the island's public museums.
'We encourage people to get out and about to look at the geological and archaeological sites that the Isle of Man is renowned for, and our main exhibitions are designed to promote the landscape by linking into countryside sites,' says Hawkins.
'Geology is at the base of everything but you can't separate out the effect humans have had on the landscape and we are keen on this integrated approach to our heritage.'
Close links with university departments and geological societies mean that the profile of geology is high on the island. Low-tech geological maps and guides have been produced for the public, in addition to those publications aimed at amateur groups and students.
'The island has long been active in geological research and this is reflected in the geology gallery at the Manx Museum,' says Hawkins. 'The next step is to interpret the fantastic exposures out there in the landscape.'
While archaeological, historical and industrial sites have been protected and promoted for tourism for many years, there is not much public awareness of the geology that underpins all this.
With the exception of dinosaurs, volcanoes and earthquakes, there has been little attempt to communicate the earth sciences in a popular way.
But recent initiatives could soon encourage those visiting established holiday destinations to bring rock hammers along with their buckets and spades.
The creation of geological World Heritage Sites such as the Jurassic Coast in Dorset and east Devon, and European Geoparks including the North Pennines and the Abberley and Malvern Hills, has been responsible for an increase in nature-based tourism.
Other areas known for their rich geological exposures such as the Yorkshire coast, where dinosaur footprints can be found, have started promoting themselves as geological destinations.
And museums have a key role to play in this development, not least because they hold the collections that have come from the finds of amateur and professional geologists.
Jonathan Larwood, a geologist and palaeontologist working for the Environmental Impacts Team at government conservation agency English Nature, says museums should create two-way traffic, with their visitors going out into the landscape to see rock formations and fossils, and holidaymakers and walkers being drawn into museums.
'Britain has landscapes that attract visitors from all over the world,' he says. 'We have great diversity in geology, ranging from some of the oldest rocks in the world, in north-west Scotland, to the more recent deposits of Neogene times in south-east England.
'But how much do people know of the fascinating stories behind the formation of these landscapes? And are they able to access information, at an appropriate level of interpretation, that helps reveal these great stories from geological time?'
A fossil hunters' voluntary code, similar to the country code, exists to instill good practice; it says hunters should look among recent landslips rather than hacking away at cliff faces, for example.
But Larwood warns that the balance between the desired growth in tourism and the preservation of the geological resource on which it is based has to be respected. 'It has to ensure that the environment remains undamaged, and wherever possible, enhanced,' he says.
'Many sites are robust and can withstand large numbers of visitors, but where they are sensitive or restricted, care must be taken to manage visitor access and site use. It will have little impact where sites are extensive and frequently renewed as in eroding coasts, but where they are not readily renewed, fossil collecting needs to be tailored to the available resource.'
William Smith could perhaps be considered the first geotourist. Smith is known as the father of English geology for his late 18th-century investigations into rock strata and for producing the first geological map of England and Wales, published in 1815. His colour coding of rock strata is still used by geologists today.
Smith was the first to recognise that the age of rock strata could be estimated by looking at the fossils they contained, and his discoveries were invaluable to the landowners, canal builders and mine owners of the Industrial Revolution.
Smith established geology as a science, but he was also interested in the interpretation of his findings. He was closely involved in the development of the Rotunda Museum, which opened in 1829 in Scarborough, where he lived in his later years. The museum was designed to display the amazing fossil finds from the Yorkshire coastline.
'Smith suggested the design to facilitate the sharing of what was then state-of-the-art ideas about geology, and he also encouraged people to go out onto the coast to look for fossils,' says Jane Mee, the museums and galleries officer at Scarborough Borough Council.
The founding principles of the Rotunda Museum were somewhat lost over the years and it became a museum of local history. But now the Rotunda is to be redeveloped as a centre of geology for the region, building on the success of the Yorkshire Dinosaur Coast Project, now in its sixth year. The scheme will cost about £3m and the museum will close in January 2006 for a reopening in spring 2007.
'The museum will function as a gateway to the Dinosaur Coast,' explains Mee. 'We want to blur the boundaries between the collections and the geological heritage of the coast, where you can see dinosaur footprints and collect fossils from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods just five minutes' walk from the town.'
The renovated museum will include a gallery devoted to Smith; the Dinosaur Coast Visitor Centre; and Geology Now, a gallery supported by the oil company Shell, which will showcase current research. To reflect its new emphasis, it will be renamed the Rotunda, the William Smith Museum of Geology.
'We want geology to be to Scarborough what art is to St Ives,' says Mee, who is working with English Nature and other partners to set up a fossil registration scheme so that interesting finds are logged and, if significant, acquired for the museum.
But geologist Tom Hose is concerned that the concept of geotourism is being exploited. Hose, a principal lecturer in the leisure and tourism department at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, has also worked in museums.
He says he coined the term geotourism about 12 years ago as a way of looking at geology collections and sites together and promoting them as something of interest to the public, and not just for the scientific community. But he believes this holistic opportunity has been lost on many organisations.
'Geology doesn't have a good brand image,' Hose says. 'When you visit a geology site it's a one off, whereas with archaeology it's usually part of a sequence promoted by English Heritage, and marked on Ordnance Survey maps as well as local tourist boards. There's a need for a common scheme, for example with printed materials and typography.'
From archaeology to social history, many museum collections are based on geology and geomorphology, the shaping of the landscape, says Hose: 'Geology produced the raw materials for industry that underpinned the Industrial Revolution, and this is encapsulated in many museum collections across the country. But geologists never get a look in.
'Geology in general is suffering a decline,' Hose continues. 'There are very few geology curators left, and field trips in schools, colleges and universities are discouraged because of costs and health and safety requirements. There is also the tendency for biology-based and industrial archaeological conservation organisations to try to prettify and gentrify the sites.'
Worse, many geology collections have been allowed to decline, with one famously ending up in a redundant fire station in the early 1990s. 'Many sites are being lost due to landfill, but while mu-seums are repositories for material from these sites the link has not been made,' Hose says.
He says there are a few excellent examples of geology displays, citing the Reading the Rocks gallery in the Ludlow Museum. 'This museum has an excellent display that links into a geology teaching trail and a geology trail for the public.'
The Jurassic Coast stretches from Exmouth in east Devon to Old Harry Rocks in Purbeck, Dorset, and contains 185 million years of evolution. It was nominated a World Heritage Site in 2001.
The main focus for fossil collecting is the area around Charmouth and Lyme Regis, where the 12-year-old Mary Anning discovered a complete ichthyosaur fossil, a giant fish lizard, in 1811.
The Jurassic Coast team is developing the coastline for geotourism, and David Tucker, the museums adviser at Dorset County Council, is looking for funding for a package of initiatives to help local museums the length of the coast.
'It will really make a difference,' says Tucker. 'The West Country model is lots of small, accredited community museums often run on a voluntary basis. Some, such as Dorchester, have spectacular finds, but lack the opportunities to properly tell the Jurassic Coast story.'
There will be four main strands to the Jurassic Coast museum initiative: recruiting and training more volunteers; running more events for locals and tourists; curatorial back-up to help with specific collections and with conservation; and branding so that the museums all have a similar design style.
'Events are a great way of making new audiences,' says Tucker. 'And you have to remember that there are people with mobility problems who can't walk up the cliffs or scramble over rocks. While we will lead on geology, it will also include human history.
'For example, Bridport has a fishing and net-making heritage - the goal nets for the 1966 World Cup were made here - and it is all a construct of the coast's geology and geomorphology. The museums will achieve a greater sense of working in partnership and a greater sense of identity, which we should be able to pass on to visitors but which will also serve the local environment.'
Deborah Mulhearn is a freelance journalist
www.europeangeopark.org
http://whc.unesco.org
www.jurassiccoast.com
Ludlow Museum, Shropshire
Given its size, Shropshire contains an incredible variety of rock formations, which cover most of the geological periods of time. As a result, its local authority-run museums own internationally important collections, particularly at Ludlow and Much Wenlock.
Ludlow also has a new library and museum resource centre that holds a representative collection of the county's geology. To capitalise on the county's riches and address the decline in the teaching of geology, and particularly field trips, the county museum service has set up a geology teaching trail aimed primarily at A-level students and their teachers.
'The idea is to provide a complete package with accommodation, lectures and fieldwork leaders,' says geologist Daniel Lockett, the curator of natural sciences at the Ludlow Museum.
'We approached an exam board that offers geology, now the only one that does, so the trail ties into national curriculum requirements. And we are working with a local quarry to obtain access to particular rock sections. We will provide the expertise and the collections and access to areas of study outside.
'One of my main concerns is that people don't know enough about us and our fantastic stories,' Lockett continues. 'Universities know about the vast variety of fossils and rock sections to be found in the county, but we want to spread this awareness out to schools, sixth-form colleges and the general public.'
Naracoorte Caves National Park, Australia
Naracoorte Caves are a series of limestone caves about 240 miles south-east of Adelaide, in southern Australia. Twenty-six of the caves are in the Naracoorte Caves National Park, administered by South Australia's Department for Environment and Heritage.
Four of the caves are open to the public. They contain live stalagmites and stalactites, marine fossils and lots of animal remains, including the bones of many extinct marsupials.
The number of visitors to the caves fell over the years because the displays were not refreshed, but the site's inscription as a World Heritage Site in 1994 was the catalyst for new investment.
In 1998 the Wonambi Fossil Centre opened and with better promotion and an expanded range of facilities, annual visitor numbers have risen by 30,000 during the past six years to reach 70,000.
As part of an overall strategy to offer experiences to a wider range of people, Naracoorte Caves has worked with the South Australian Museum in Adelaide to deliver roadshows at the caves and other geological sites. Classrooms in the Caves saw 1,300 students learning with museum education officers, curators and palaentologists.
Workshops topics included fossils, bats, ancient marine life, arachnophobia, geology and minerals. There was also a Day of Treasures for families and the local community, which included curator talks and walks, the museum's own Batman, fossil factory, Pleistocene Park and a family fossil dig.
'The South Australian Museum is a major scientific research organisation concerned with understanding the natural and cultural environment in which we live through exploring and documenting its diversity,' says Tim Flannery, the director of the South Australian Museum.
'The opportunity for us to meet and talk with people about a range of contemporary science issues, particularly those related to the environment and future sustainability, is very exciting.'
Manx Museum, Isle of Man
'Our philosophy is that the whole island is a museum,' says Kate Hawkins, the curator of natural history at the Manx Museum.
The Isle of Man has several significant geological sites, one of which at Niarbyl has been the focus of discovery of new geological strata. Many of the heritage sites, including Niarbyl itself, are owned by Manx National Heritage, which also runs most of the island's public museums.
'We encourage people to get out and about to look at the geological and archaeological sites that the Isle of Man is renowned for, and our main exhibitions are designed to promote the landscape by linking into countryside sites,' says Hawkins.
'Geology is at the base of everything but you can't separate out the effect humans have had on the landscape and we are keen on this integrated approach to our heritage.'
Close links with university departments and geological societies mean that the profile of geology is high on the island. Low-tech geological maps and guides have been produced for the public, in addition to those publications aimed at amateur groups and students.
'The island has long been active in geological research and this is reflected in the geology gallery at the Manx Museum,' says Hawkins. 'The next step is to interpret the fantastic exposures out there in the landscape.'
