Examination of Geotourism Potentials of the Maranjab Area

Tourism in today's world is being pursued with various goals and purposes such as the exchange of information and culture, pilgrimage, increasing knowledge, awareness of past societies and spending leisure time, and it daily rises in importance in everyday economic, social and international structures. One of the important branches of tourism, which is nowadays very much considered, is geotourism. In fact, geotourism or geographic tourism is one of the special fields of ecotourism that introduces geological and geomorphologic phenomena and features to tourists and preserves their local identity. Due to the availability of sufficient resources, both natural and human, salt pans (kavir) can be considered as one of the focal points of geotourism in each region, and in addition to strengthening the ecotourism dimensions of the area, they can balance the economic growth around them. Having two large Markazi (central) and lout salt pans, Iran has one of the richest ecotourism and geotourism potentials in the Middle East. One of the most beautiful areas of Iran's salt pan is Maranjab area, located on the western border of Kavir Plain in Aran and Bidgol. This area has a diverse nature of desert and salt pan, many beautiful phenomena and numerous attractions. Among the geotouristic attractions of this area are: Maranjab inn, salt lake, Sargardan (wandering) island and sandy hills. The purpose of this article was to investigate the potentials and capabilities of geotourism in the Maranjab area and the type of study was descriptive-documentary. In preparing this paper, secondary sources including books, research reports and dissertations have been used and the results of field surveys, observations, etc. have been used to complement it with practical data. Finally, the author, based on the presentations, concludes the discussion and proposes appropriate strategies for developing the tourism industry in the Maranjab region, which can be generalized for other kavir districts.