ダークツーリズムの視角からみたジオパーク、ジオツーリズムの可能性

Throughout the first 10 years from the creation of Geopark initiative in 2004, various researches have demonstrated their possibilities and values as a tool for geological education and regional development via geotourism. However, they largely avoid looking at the existence of negative aspect in the creation process of such natural heritage, that is, the neglect of natural disaster. In this paper, the author introduces the dark tourism concept in studies on geoparks and geotourism, and proposes its importance in search of cultural distinctiveness of Japanese geoparks as one of the most major countries of earthquakes and volcano eruptions.