ABSTRACT
Dinosaurs are a very popular science topic throughout the world, and pale-ontological tourism highlighting dinosaur paleontological sites is booming. Dinosaur outcrops, “hot spot” of paleontological discoveries, are valorized into geotourism destinations contributing to local economic development based on a specific territorial resource: the paleontological resource. Thus, since the 2000s, no less than 30 new dinosaurian destinations have emerged. The main infrastructures of this touristic offer are open-air or field museums, interpretive centers, local museums, or palaeontological parks that value all these discoveries as closely as possible. Stakeholder network graphs analysis shows that many factors fosters the success of these tourism projects. Beyond the scientific and/or spectacular quality of the paleontological remains, the networks of actors involved, and the scale of these networking are key factors to trigger a sustainable tourism development. Several case studies are presented illustrating the diversity of strategies used to develop these projects. Whatever the strategy adopted, the tourist trajectory of dinosaurian sites must above all respect the “sense of place” allowing the visitor to apprehend a fascinating world forever gone.
