Geotourism
Fariba Karami; masomeh Rajabi; Fateme Rangraz Forog
Abstract
Hot springs are included in health tourism as a natural resource. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the Geotourism capabilities of the hot springs on the northern slopes of the Bezgosh mountain range with the approach of developing health tourism using the GAM geosite evaluation method (based ...
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Hot springs are included in health tourism as a natural resource. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the Geotourism capabilities of the hot springs on the northern slopes of the Bezgosh mountain range with the approach of developing health tourism using the GAM geosite evaluation method (based on the opinion of experts) and the M-GAM method (based on the opinion of visitors). The current reaserch is both descriotive and analytical in terms of purpose.6 Hot springs were identified through the opinions of experts from the regional water resources department of East Azerbaijan province, according to the results. The results of the GAM method showed that the hot springs of Esboroshan and Allah Haq have the highest points, and the springs of Jaldeh Bakhan and Narmiq have the lowest points in terms of health tourism. The analysis of the location of the springs based on the GAM matrix showed that the main value has a lower score compared to the acquired value, which is due to the low score of the scientific/educational value compared to the conservation and beauty/viewing values. The investigation of the springs with the M-GAM method showed that the hot springs of Esbforoshan and Allah hagh have the highest rating, the main reason for this is due to the higher beauty/scenery and protection features that are considered more by the visitors. The GAM matrix shows that the springs are located in three zones Z33, Z32 and Z21 and based on the M-GAM matrix they are in the zones Z22, Z21 and Z11. The reason for changing the location of the springs is the zoning of the M-GAM matrix due to the application of the important factor (high impact of tourists' opinion on the final result).
