Tourist Value Assessment of Geotourism and Environmental Capabilities in Qeshm Island, Iran

Geotourism incorporates the concept of sustainable tourism, while allowing for ways to protect a place's features. The purpose of this study is the assessment of geotourism for Qeshm Island as one of the most important islands in Iran. The landscape here offers a very special and unique experience of an unspoilt natural environment. The tourist value assessment method is used to determine the potential and capabilities of each of these geotourism sites, which were studied for geomorphologic valuesesthetic, scientific, cultural, and economic values. The results of this study showed that Qeshm Island is a national geopark, which includes some geosites and is a geotourism destination. But Qeshm Island is not a fully developed geotourism site yet. It has high scientific value and potential, but those get eclipsed, bringing the overall value down. The low obtained values are mainly due to the factors like the difficulty of access, distance from major population centers of the province and the country, the lack of familiarity with the area's potential, people's attitude to tourism and spending leisure time, and the lack of attention to geotourism in its real concept.