(A)Biotic Heritage and Sustainable Tourism

Dear colleagues, 

The diversity of nature, which includes biotic and abiotic elements, is the key to the sustainability of human society. In recent decades, there has been much more focus on biotic nature (biodiversity) while abiotic elements (geodiversity) were given very little attention. Most international and national agreements and policies were written in such a way that they often exclude geodiversity from conservation measures. However, in recent years, this has been slowly changing. The importance of abiotic elements, such as geoheritage (representative samples of geodiversity) is been given more and more attention lately, especially in the context of sustainable tourism. Several forms of tourism strictly related to biodiversity and geodiversity, such as ecotourism and geotourism were thought to be an obvious contributor to nature conservation. However, in recent years it is becoming more and more evident that this is difficult to achieve. Increasing the contribution made by tourism to geodiversity and biodiversity conservation is proving to be more challenging than it was anticipated in the past. This Special Issue is dedicated to problems related to the sustainable development of tourism forms connected to geoheritage and bioheritage, as well as the conservation and preservation of these resources for use by future generations.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to reinforce the idea that the rigorous study of geodiversity and biodiversity but also geoheritage and bioheritage associated with touristic activities (mainly geotourism and ecotourism) is fundamental for the dissemination of knowledge on sustainable tourism development and nature conservation. Furthermore, there is a special emphasis on the assessment of these resources and their use for geotourism, ecotourism, and other related forms of adequate tourism niches.

We expect this Special Issue will become a major reference on how to evaluate geodiversity and biodiversity, as well as geoheritage and bioheritage, for tourism purposes concerning sustainable tourism principles. Hence, keep in mind when writing that your readers may be practitioners, consultants or leaders, or academics: readability and illustration of concrete cases will be a plus. 

Dr. Nemanja Tomić
Prof. Dr. Slobodan B. Marković
Guest Editors

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