The untapped potential of scenic routes for geotourism: case studies of Lasocki Grzbiet and Pasmo Lesistej (Western and Central Sudeten Mountains, SW Poland)

A view is often more than just a piece of landscape, framed by the gaze and evoking emotion. Without diminishing these obvious ‘tourism-important’ advantages of a view, it is noteworthy that in itself it might play the role of an interpretative tool, especially for large-scale phenomena, the knowledge and understanding of which is the goal of geotourism. In this paper, we analyze the importance of scenic drives and trails for tourism, particularly geotourism, focusing on their ability to create conditions for experiencing the dynamically changing landscapes in which lies knowledge of the natural processes shaping the Earth’s surface and the methods and degree of its resource exploitation. The issues are found in both wider and local contexts. A more detailed insight has been conducted on the basis of two, although in some sense peripheral, tourism regions from the Sudeten Mountains (southwestern Poland): Lasocki Grzbiet (a ridge) and Pasmo Lesistej (a small range). The subjects of the investigation were complex: the geotourism potential of selected viewpoints located on the most scenic routes (mostly paths and forest tracks) as well as the problems of maintenance, conservation, and protection of their educational value. Our work is based on desk and field research supported by results of GIS visibility analyses (conducted in the QGIS program).