Cave Tourism in Switzerland: Implications for Preservation and Interpretation of Subterranean Geoheritage

Caves, as subterranean geological formations, hold scientific, cultural, and environmental significance. Show caves stand out as carefully curated destinations, providing an opportunity to explore geological processes, appreciate their aesthetic beauty, and recognize their ecological importance. This study explores the significance of show caves as subterranean geoheritage sites and focuses on their potential for sustainable cave tourism. Our primary objective is to comprehensively assess caves, while developing practical growth strategies. We introduce a novel methodology and have tested it in evaluating nine show caves in Switzerland, involving literature review, field surveys, assessments and stakeholder consultations. Addressing potential challenges and negative impacts, we analyze current tourism development and propose mitigation strategies. The Extended Show Cave Assessment Model (E-SCAM) represents a new version of SCAM (Anti et al., 2022), consisting of four groups of indicators: speleological value (SV), monitoring value (MV), infrastructure value (IV) and touristic value (TV). All indicators have their own sub-indicators that are given values (grades) from 1 to 5. The assessment process comprises two distinct stages. In the initial phase, experts evaluate and provide importance factors for each sub-indicator within the assessment model. The importance factors are average scores given by experts (1-5) in surveys. Each sub-indicator has its own importance factor, representing the experts' collective assessment of its significance within our model. For SV, the importance factor has already been determined in a previous study (Anti et al., 2022). Thus, the assessment of SV in this paper excluded the first stage of the assessment process, since we used the importance factors of SV from the previous study. Subsequently, in the second stage, authors assess and assign scores to the show caves in Switzerland. To calculate the final ratings for the explored show caves in this paper, the authors' ratings are multiplied by the previously established importance factors determined by experts. Therefore, the final ratings incorporates both the authors' opinions and the input from experts in the fields of speleology, climate, show cave infrastructure and tourism. This approach was chosen to gain a more detailed and expert-driven understanding of the significance of show cave tourism values. The study culminates in three distinct matrices: the Speleological- Touristic Value (SV-TV) matrix, the Monitoring-Touristic Value (MV-TV) matrix, and the Infrastructure-Touristic Value (IV-TV) matrix. These matrices compare the speleological, monitoring, and infrastructure values of show caves with their corresponding tourist values. The findings underscore the need for immediate action in addressing the lack of sustainable lighting systems for preservation, while highlighting generally robust infrastructure. However, concerning monitoring values, there is a significant deficit, emphasizing the necessity for enhanced climatic monitoring. The study suggests improving tourist values by implementing clearer rules of conduct, strategic marketing, enhancing guide service quality, and educating tourists on the fragility of cave ecosystems. Keywords: show caves; cave tourism; Switzerland; geoheritage; geointerpretation. References Anti, A., Tomi, N., Markovi, S. B. (2022). Applying the show cave assessment model (SCAM) on cave tourism destinations in Serbia. International Journal of Geoheritage and Parks, 10(4), 616-634.