Traditional Crafts: a Tool for Geo-education in Geotourism

Abstract

Art is a tool for education and can facilitate knowledge transfer and sciences to infants and schoolchildren. Therefore, tourism products such as geotourism which are classified as educational tourism can benefit from art and artists for knowledge transfer from the professional level to tourists, locals and children. In this context, this research has three major purposes: (1) to address how activities and strategies in geotourism can be applied for the purpose of geoknowledge transfer and geo-education; (2) to introduce art, especially handicrafts, as an educational tool for promoting geotourism; and (3) to promote geoproducts inspired by the existence of fossils in Isfahan Province, Iran. On the basis of the results of this study, it can be concluded that integrating traditional art with geological elements can be a strategy for geo-education and popularisation of Earth sciences. © 2017, The European Association for Conservation of the Geological Heritage.