Hearing the death of Dr. Bojan Erhartic

 Sorrowfully ,Our colleague  of the IAG working group on Geomorphosites

And Pioneer on geomorphological sites research & geoturism Research  in Slovenia, Dr. Bojan Erhartic, passed away!

I sat down when  he was done,
I couldn't say anything,
I buried my face in my hands,
the last words in my heart said, "goodbye Bojan”

Message from Prof. Emmanuel Reynard about the accident

Dear colleagues of the IAG working group on Geomorphosites,

We are very sad to inform you that our Slovenian colleague Bojan Erhartic (born in 1979), from the Anton Melik Geographical Institute in Ljubjana, some days ago in a flight accident. According to our colleague Blaz Komac, he was on a flight across the Julian Alps and when flying back to the Portorož airport the airplane hit an electric cable, the wing was tear off and the plane crashed.

Bojan has been very active, with his colleagues of the Geographical institute, in the working group on Geomorphosites. He was a pioneer on geomorphological sites research in Slovenia and developed several studies on the Slovenian geomorphological heritage and geotourism, and participated actively to the development of the Slovenian school of geomorphology. Several of us met him at the last Conference on Geomorphology on Paris, where he was plenty of projects for the future.

All our condolences to his family and colleagues,

For the whole working group,

Emmanuel, Paola and Fabien

_____________________________________

Emmanuel Reynard

Université de Lausanne, Institut de géographie et durabilité, Géopolis, CH – 1015 Lausanne

Tourism industry in geopraks

The multidisciplinary nature of the concept of Geopark and  tourism promotion in geoparks, in the holistic nature, differentiates itself from other models of sustainable tourism. In fact, sustainable tourism promotion in geopark actually encompasses many of the subdivisions of sustainable tourism including: geotourism (geo-site tourism: as a basic factor), community-based tourism and integrated rural tourism(as a vital needs), ecotourism, cultural heritage tourism and etc. Finally tourism promotion in Geopark, as a geographically sustainable and applicable tourism model, aims to sustains, or even enhances, the  geographical character of a place.

Geotourism PhDs in the world

Fortunately, some true studies is in progress around the world, But, It is required to mention that we can rarely find true geotouristic focus phd thesis(major works) in the world, such as Thomas Hose(2003)(As a pioneer work) and Mamoon Allan’(2011)(as second one) studies, but in the multi -disciplinary approach, more phd thesis can be added to the below list.

1. Thomas Alfred Hose - 2003- (Geotourism- study on the effective geo-interpretation in  geo-museum(secondary geosites) & geo-site)- He holds a doctorate from the University of Birmingham in England (As a  self conducted and a groundbreaking study). Now, Dr. Tom Hose , works as a Honorary Research Associate at School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol ,the UK.

2. Aise KyoungJin Kim- 2007 - (Geo-interpretation- study on visitors' geo-environmental Attitudes and Behaviour),She holds a doctorate from the University of Surrey,the UK, under Prof. Airey' supervision.(Now, Dr.Aise Kim, is a senior lecturer of tourism management in the School of Management at the University of South Australia, Australia. Her research interests include sustainable tourism, interpretation, tourist behaviour, tourism marketing,and geotourism). Her book,extracted from her PhD thesis is:' Kim A.k.(2011)Environmental interpretation and sustainable tourism: Promoting Visitors' Environmental Attitudes and Behaviour, LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 436 pages.

LINK:http://www.amazon.com/Environmental-interpretation-sustainable-tourism-Promoting/dp/384542995X "

3. Mamoon Allan -2011- (geotourism- understanding of motivations for a geo- experience ), He holds a doctorate from Edith Cown University in Australia under Prof. Dowling' supervision.(to find some details of Dr. Allan' book , extracted from his phd thesis, please go to blog Archive in 2011 and into the geoturism books .

4. Young Ng – May 2012 - (Geo-interpretation- He completed his Phd thesis on geoparks and geotourism. He studied the two geo-parks in China - at Leiqiong and Danxiashan - and applied lessons learned from the case studies to help the Hong Kong geopark),he holds a doctorate from  the school of geosciences at the the University of Sydney, Australia, Associate Professor Phil McManus, along with Associate Professor Deirdre Dragovich, supervised his PhD thesis. (Now He teaches geotourism in Hong Kong and works as a geoconservation expert at the Hong Kong Global Geopark of China. . In July 2012, Dr. Ng was awarded a Medal of Honour by the Hong Kong SAR for his work on geoconservation generally).

5. Ms. Chris Grant, PhD student (now, works on her geotourism phd thesis) at Manchester Metropolitan University. Also she is a lecturer in Business at University of Bolton, the UK.

6. Mr. Ari Brozinski currently working on his geotourism PhD in Turku, Finland.

7. Mr. Đorđije A. Vasiljević, PhD student (now, works on his geo-tourism Phd thesis) at  Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad. Also he is Teaching Assistant and  Research Associate at the aforementioned department, University of Novi Sad, Serbia.

Title of His PhD thesis : "Geodiversity and geoheritage of Vojvodina Province - conservation and tourism", and is in progress.

  -(Please help improve this post by adding more PhD stories in geotourism and some more data to our colleagues around the world)-
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Hose, T. A. (2003)" Geotourism in England: A two-region case study analysis. unpublished Ph.D. thesis. University of Birmingham, Birmingham.

KyoungJin Kim, Aise (2007) “Visitor Interpretation and Sustainable Tourism: a study of the role of interpretation in influencing attitudes and behaviour toward environmental conservation”, PhD thesis, School of Management , University of Surrey.UK (Published PhD thesis in 2011).

Allan, Mamoon (2011) “Geotourism: Toward A Better Understanding Of Motivations For A Geotourism Experience(A Self-Determination Theory Perspective)”, PhD thesis, Edith Cowan University, Australia.(published thesis in 2012)

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