ABSTRACT
Urban geotourism combines sightseeing tours of human monuments, architectonic structures, even cultural events along with exploring the natural history of Earth, and admiring nature’s wonders because every town has a story to tell us that is somehow related to geology. Hence, countries like Poland, with its long history of facing upheavals that have resulted in an abundance of old cities and towns with architectonic monuments from different periods, rich cultural heritage, and mining tradition, together with high geodiversity, presenting an especially high potential for development of urban geotourism in this scenic country. This chapter presents the current state of urban geotourism in Poland based on a few large, medium- and small-sized towns, selected for this study. This specific form of tourism has been gaining acceptance and reputation in Poland for the past several years. However, its development should be considered rather spontaneous and, in many cases, not exactly well planned or well managed. Moreover, the geotouristic and geoeducational potential of many cities and towns still remains unexplored. However, this is not the case for large cities like Kraków, Kielce, and Wrocław, as well as for many small towns in Poland and postindustrial regions of Lower and Upper Silesia, where the combination of urban tourism with geoeducation and admiration for natural wonders was recognized by local governments as a great idea for promoting tourism in the town, leading to the increased inflow of tourists and therefore adding to the city’s coffers. Furthermore, the extraordinary prospect of educating people in earth sciences in the city, which could not be more difficult than natural surroundings, is simply intriguing.
