Tourism and geosciences

Since the decade 90 tourism has been experimenting a process of growth never known before, becoming the greatest people movement ever happened in mankind history. It has also appeared as the main economic activity all over the world, surpassing traditional sectors as the petroliferous, the electronic, the pharmaceutical and the automotive industries.This tourism needs today more attention because it has become more exigent with the product, there is more exigency of quality, contents and environmental conscience. As a result there has been an increase in natural tourism. i.e. the conscience and the desire of information about environment which interfered with the choice of destinations.

This is a link between ecotourism and cultural tourism. The first had its apogee at the end of the '90 and was characterized by the contact with nature and the search for experiences and feelings; the second one has an enticing contents of knowledge aggregated to touristic destination, as in museums, churches and architectural works. Geotourism proposal is to put togheter both geoscientific knowledge and natural patrimony.

In natural tourist places already known as Iguaçu or Corcovado, the geological information presented in a didatic way gives the tourist the chance to bring with him this information, in this way he contributes to spread it with his cultural addition and the visitor enlargement of environmental conscience and improvement of local economy.

Another geotourism situation is the possibility to transform a geological interest place into a touristic attraction. The best example, in Paraná, are glacial grooves in Witmarsum, Palmeira County, included in the muleteers' route (Rota dos Tropeiros). A sandstone outcrop showing marks of glaciers existence in the past of the region has received from the local community, the infrastructure implantation, explanatory outdoors and folders from Mineropar, explaining processes and geological events happened there. This outcrop, once menaced of destruction for lack of information, has been visited by students and specialized visitors from many places of the world.