Introduction

Geotourism, as one of the new areas of nature tourism, follows the principles of nature-based tourism, education and promotion, environmental and economic protection and sustainability, and is a combination of the earth's heritage in the form of geographical landscapes, geomorphological forms, geological phenomena, ruggedness, rocks and minerals, mines, fossils, etc., and the processes that create them. One of the factors that create and underpin geotourism is the identification and evaluation of geotourism attractions, called geomorphosites. Geomorphosites are key elements in the development of geotourism, which have scientific, aesthetic, cultural, historical and economic values and can appear singly or in a variety of sizes at various scales. The present study aimed to evaluate the importance of geomorphosites in Dorud County based on the Prolong model, focusing on three tourism land areas including the geomorphosites of Gahar Lake, t, by prioritizing the geomorphosites, provide suggestions for improving and developing their performance in order to contribute to sustainable tourism in the region.



Methodology

According to the purpose of the research, two types of evaluation were used as the criteria for action. One is the use of a qualitative method to identify and select geomorphosites through initial impressions and scientific reports of experts, based on their capabilities, and the other is a quantitative method for numerical evaluation and ranking of the geotourism site. The quantitative method is objective and tangible due to the use of numerical criteria and is also known as an indirect method. In this method, without mentioning how the sites were identified and selected, previously known geotourism sites are evaluated using quantitative methods. For this purpose, the Pralong (2005) model was used to comparatively evaluate the geomorphosite capabilities of Bisheh Waterfall, Gohar Lake, and Lili Strait. This model was first presented by Pralong in 2005, which is a comprehensive method for introducing and evaluating the geotourism capabilities of geomorphosites.

To investigate the behavior of tourists, facilities and services, and protection of geotourism sites, a general questionnaire was prepared and completed by 100 tourists. The first part of this questionnaire included demographic items such as age, gender, education, marital status, place of residence, and tourists' level of knowledge of geomorphosites. The second part consisted of 20 specialized questions on the subject of facilities, services, and protection based on a five-point Likert scale (from very low to very high).

Descriptive statistics and one-sample t-test were used in SPSS software to analyze the general questionnaire. In this regard, descriptive statistics indicators such as item frequency and mean were used as criteria for analyzing and summarizing the data, which allows for a better understanding of the data distribution. One-sample t-test is one of the parametric methods that was used to examine the difference between the population mean and the assumed mean of 3 (average) on the Likert scale.



Results and Discussion

The results of the frequency distribution of the measured variables showed that "the level of interest in protecting geotourism attractions and land heritage", "the impact of Lake Gohar on attracting tourists", "the impact of the Leyli Strait on attracting tourists" and "the status of accessibility and the presence of tourist guides to reach Lake Gohar" have very high values with 23, 23, 22 and 22 percent respectively. Also, the variables "the level of satisfaction with the geomorphosites of Leyli Strait, Bisheh Waterfall and Lake Gohar", "the desire to stay overnight in the place", "the status of protection of geomorphosites in the region" and "the status of accessibility and the presence of tourist guides to reach Leyli Strait" have high values with 55, 49, 53 and 54 percent respectively as the most important variables.

The results of the one-sample t-test showed that the significance level in all items is less than 0.001, which indicates a significant difference between the mean of the items and the assumed mean of 3 (moderate). Also, according to the p value < 0.001 and positive upper and lower bounds, all variables for evaluating geomorphosites are appropriate. In this regard, the variable "satisfaction level from visiting the geomorphosites of Leili Strait, Bisheh Waterfall and Gohar Lake" with a mean of 3.89 and a t value of 58.49 has the highest values and is the most important variable. In contrast, the variables "level of information and familiarity of tourists with attractions and tourism issues" and "status of accommodation facilities and tourism service facilities within the geomorphosites" have the least importance with t values of 3.06 and 2.8, respectively.



Conclusion

In the evaluation of the four criteria of the Prolong method, the apparent beauty criterion has obtained the highest score, and among the three geosites studied in the region, Bisheh Waterfall ranks first in terms of beauty, which indicates the greater attractiveness of this geosite. The economic criterion scores indicate the second rank of this criterion among the four criteria. In general, all the geosites studied have relatively good importance and value in economic terms, and among them, Bisheh Waterfall ranks first, which indicates that the accessibility of this geosite via the road is important in the region and its high attractiveness at the national level. Other geosites, from the perspective of economic criteria, need to develop important roads, as well as increase attractiveness and increase the level of protection measures. In the evaluations, the scientific value is ranked third, and among the geomorphosites studied, Lake Gohar is ranked first, which indicates its scientific and educational potential for the development of geotourism. The cultural criterion in the evaluation of geomorphosites has obtained very low scores, which indicates the lack of artistic and cultural events in the region, so in this regard, attention needs to be paid to the development of these aspects. In terms of productivity value, Bisheh Waterfall is also ranked first, and other geosites have obtained relatively equal scores. The increase in the number of infrastructures such as temporary camps and desirable accommodation centers, as well as a higher score in the utilization value and a higher number of visitors, have made it superior to the average productivity value.