Domestic tourism is one of the current trends of today's recreation, and its development is one of the most promising tasks for Russia. Geological tourism or geotourism is quite a young direction, steadily evolving in the world over the past twenty years. The South of Russia has truly inexhaustible resources for its development, as many unique natural objects and entire geological landscapes are located on its territory. However, the availability of these resources alone is not enough for the development of geotourism. According to experts, the problem is that most tourists do not have the specific knowledge to be able to appreciate the uniqueness of certain geological attractions. In this regard, the need to create new methods that would allow us to determine the potential of this direction, taking into account the peculiarities of the popularization of geology, comes to the fore.

Geotourism research is actively conducted all over the world. According to the information system "SciVal" (as of October 2022), over five years, scientists from different countries have published about 2,000 scientific papers on T.14792 "Geotourism, geo-diversity, nature conservation", while the Southern Federal University is a world leader in this subject area, successfully competing with universities in Brazil, Portugal, Switzerland. Anna Mikhaylenko, associate professor of the Institute of Earth Sciences of the Southern Federal University, and Dmitry Ruban, an associate professor of the Higher School of Business of the Southern Federal University, both independently and in collaboration with colleagues from other universities, have been studying issues related to geological heritage and its application in tourism for a long time.

In a recent scientific article published in the leading Russian magazine "Service in Russia and Abroad", they presented a new methodology for determining the potential of geotourism of territories. The article is part of a special issue of the journal (edited by Marianna Yakimenko, Deputy Director, Head of the Department of Management Technologies in the Tourism Industry of the Higher School of Business, SFedU), dedicated to creative practices of tourism development due to its specialized types, actively studied by employees of the Higher School of Business. The new methodology of scientists of the Southern Federal University distributes geotourist attractions on various topics. The evaluation criteria include the value of the object, its use in tourism, the development of student excursions during educational practices, the condition of the infrastructure and suprastructure.

"The proposed methodology has two fundamental differences from previous developments. Firstly, the presence of features in unique geological objects corresponding to two well-popularized topics, namely the world of dinosaurs and precious stones, is analyzed. Secondly, the experience of using these facilities during excursions for students is taken into account. The technique is easy to use, and the importance of the results obtained with its help is demonstrated by the example of Mountainous Adygea, an already established tourist destination in the South of Russia. In particular, it was possible to identify three objects with the greatest potential for use in geotourism. One of them is the Khadjokh Canyon," said an associate professor Dmitry Ruban,

According to associate professor of the Institute of Earth Sciences Anna Mikhailenko, the practical significance of the study is determined by the fact that it allows us to identify clear guidelines for the development of geotourism, which can be used by representatives of the tourism and hospitality industry with subsequent commercialization. Also, the results obtained are important for optimizing educational activities on the practice  base  named "Belaya Rechka". This is necessary, in particular, for intensive training of geography students."

Earlier this year, the authors of the study published another article on geotourism in the international scientific journal "Heritage" (CiteScore category Q1), which was specially noted by the editors on the title web page of the publication.

These studies are initiative. At the same time, they are associated with projects implemented at the Department of Physical Geography, Ecology and Nature Protection of the Institute of Earth Sciences of the Southern Federal University, in particular, within the framework of the Strategic Academic Leadership Program of the Southern Federal University Priority 2030 (project No. SP-12-22-5 ) and the national project "Science and Universities". Moreover, the actual material is collected during special expedition work and educational practice of geography students.