Mapping Geosites as Gateways to the Geotourism Management in Central High-Atlas (Morocco)

Bouzekraoui Hicham (), Barakat Ahmed, El Youssi Mohammed, Touhami Fatima, Mouaddine Atika, Hafid Abdellatif and Zwoliński Zbigniew
Additional contact information
Bouzekraoui Hicham: Team of Geotourism and Desertic Environments, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University of Rabat, Rabat, Morocco
Barakat Ahmed: Georessources and Environment Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Béni-Mellal, Morocco
El Youssi Mohammed: Team of Geotourism and Desertic Environments, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University of Rabat, Rabat, Morocco
Touhami Fatima: Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Research in Sciences and Technologies, Polydisciplinary Faculty, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Béni-Mellal, Morocco
Mouaddine Atika: Laboratory of Biology Engineering, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Béni-Mellal, Morocco
Hafid Abdellatif: Research Group of Landscapes Dynamic, Risks and Patrimony, Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Béni-Mellal, Morocco
Zwoliński Zbigniew: Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland

Quaestiones Geographicae, 2018, vol. 37, issue 1, 87-102

Abstract: Demnate commune and High-Tessaout valley are located in the Moroccan central High-Atlas. They have a great and much diversified geological and geomorphological heritage and exceptional landscapes of high mountains. The data obtained from the current work indicate that the studied area present high tourist vocation, in the fact that this territory preserves a large number of geosites linked to many witnesses fossils of extinct animals such dinosaurs footprints, outcropping rock formations of the Precambrian and Mesozoic. Further, it has many remarkable landforms and geosites such as canyons, natural bridge, spectacular waterfalls and scree slopes. The findings support that the area attracts many tourists every year. However, this number remains restricted due to the lack of tools of promotion and mediation of its geoheritage and also due to the low exploitation of the geodiversity. Regarding this situation, geotouristic routes represented on touristic map appear as an essential tool for geotourism promotion and as an efficient means of geosciences popularisation. This paper illustrates three geotouristic routes describing the main geosites in rural areas of Demnate and High-Tessaout valley. These geotourism itineraries can help to explain the high potential interest of the studied areas in geotourism terms.

Keywords: geoheritage; geosites; geotouristic map; geotourism itinerary; Central High-Atlas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/quageo-2018-0007 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:quageo:v:37:y:2018:i:1:p:87-102:n:7

DOI: 10.2478/quageo-2018-0007

Access Statistics for this article

Quaestiones Geographicae is currently edited by Andrzej Kostrzewski

More articles in Quaestiones Geographicae from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().