Although geotourism is becoming a well established form of tourism based on the

geological environment and offers a new form of sustainable tourism, it is a fact that
there are a lot of difficulties in developing geotourism. An understanding of the
problems of tourism at geological attractions is an important aspect of tourism study
and now an on-going component of geotourism
1.
One typical problem of every type of tourism is heavy visitor pressure and so does
geotourism. Although geotourism is quite a new term but it can not be denied that
geotourism is becoming more and more popular to many travel holics. And when
geotourism develops, it is very hard for the authority to manage because of heavy
visitation.
For example, Yehliu Geopark in Taiwan – a famous geotourism destination
attracting around million visitors per year. However, heavy visitation is resulting in
negative impacts in the form of touching and climbing on landforms, congestion
and accessing of restricted areas
The visitor impact/management problems described at Yehliu are indicative of
what can happen if sites become very popular and where there are no controls over
tourism access and activities. The Yehliu case study is potentially applicable to
many geoparks that currently receive heavy visitor pressure. Large numbers of
vistitors are difficult to manage unless access is carefully controlled.

2.Environmental impacts
Although geotourism is specifically designed to counter environmental
degradation, it can sometimes be its cause. It is a fact geotourism also have adverse
impacts on the envirionment
- First is the negative effects that visitors bring to the environment. Geotourism
specifically takes tourists to places relatively untouched by humans, so it puts
enormous stress on local land use, and can lead to soil erosion, increased
pollution, natural habitat loss, and more pressure on endangered species. These
effects can gradually destroy the environmental resources on
which geotourism itself depends.
- The second thing is the impact that companies bring to the environment. When
geotourim develops, it means that there are more demand for the conveniences.
Therefore, much of the infrastructure that supports geotourim – large tourist
hotels, restaurants, mall – may be owned and operated by companies outside the
tourist areas. The operation of such infrastructure uses natural resources and can
result in environmental impacts