Evaluating Scientific Tourism of Geoheritage: An Empirical Study of Fangshan Global Geopark in Beijing

Scientific tourism (ScT) of geoheritage serves as a crucial approach to ensuring the protection of natural heritage. Establishing a comprehensive evaluation system to guide the exploration of ScT in geoheritage is essential. This study adheres to principles of comprehensiveness by integrating both qualitative and quantitative methods, ensuring operability, authenticity, and scientific rigor. It employs the analytic hierarchy process, expert consultation method, and fuzzy mathematical evaluation method to construct an evaluation index system. This system encompasses four dimensions: ScT of geoheritage resources, practices and construction related to ScT, auxiliary conditions for exploration, and ecological environment construction. The study uses Fangshan Global Geopark in Beijing as a case study for empirical analysis. The findings indicate that the constructed evaluation system effectively captures key factors influencing the exploration of the ScT of geoheritage. Fangshan Global Geopark demonstrates commendable performance in terms of its ScT of geoheritage resources as well as practices and construction. But it has limitations regarding auxiliary conditions for exploration and ecological environment construction. This study provides theoretical underpinnings and policy recommendations for the exploration of the ScT of geoheritage.