GEOTOURISM IN THE NIŠAVA RIVER MIDSTREAM VALLEY, SOUTHEASTERN SERBIA – CURRENT STATE AND ISSUES OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The region of East  and Southeast Serbia, has the biggest collection of geoheritage sites in the Republic of Serbia. In the southeastern part of Serbia, following various mineralogical compositions of the rocks, the Nišava river has carved a composite valley. This is an area of extraordinary nature capacity because of large number of natural rarities and phenomena that have great possibilities for geotourism development. Despite exceptional predispositions in terms of the value of geological heritage, geosites of this area are still unknown to a wider audience. Aim of this paper is to analyze current state of geotourism and to highlight the values of geosites in Srednje Ponišavlje using the evaluating model as well to evaluate its quality and give the assessment of geotourism development success. Using GAM model, 7 geosites have been analyzed, the ones with extraordinary geological/geomorphological and hydrological features for geotourism development.