Urban geotourism development and geoconservation: Is it possible to find a balance?

• Geodiversity is an essential resource for sustainable tourism in urban areas. • Proposal of classification of the sites for the purposes of geotourism development. • The geotourist potential does not always depend on the degree of protection. Geodiversity is a basis for geotourism development. Geosites and geodiversity sites then represent particular issues of geotourist interest, however, in some cases, their potential and suitability for the geotourism is not recognized. The paper is focused on the geotourism potential assessment that forms a basis for sustainable use of geodiversity in an urban area. By using the set of criteria for assessing geosites and geomorphosites, the mutual relationships between particular values are examined and based on the assessment and statistical methods, the classification of the sites regarding their suitability for geotourism development is elaborated. The results show that the suitability of the sites for geotourism does not always depend on the degree of legal protection, but rather on the educational values or scientific values of geosites and geodiversity sites. Based on the classification, the conceptual development of geotourist activities can be proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]