OUTLINE OF GEOTOURISM AND GEOPARKS DEVELOPMENT IN EUROPE
The aim of the work undertaken is to analyze the development of geotourism in Europe. The work presents the beginnings of geotourism, basic concepts and definitions, as well as an outline of the development of this increasingly popular form of leisure not only in Europe. Because geotourism is by definition based on a geoproduct, its structure and geotourism functions are presented. However, the basic part of the work is a collection and chronology of geopark formation in individual European countries. The compiled data allow verification of the thesis about the advantage of this form of tourism in Western Europe. Geoparks are clearly less popular among Central European countries, Scandinavia, the Balkans and Eastern Europe. In the countries of these regions, the number of geoparks is small, which is surprising with similar geomorphological features. It would be interesting to know cognition whether the development of geotourism resulting from the creation of geoparks or whether this process took place in the reverse order. From the analysis of the dates of joining the Global Geopark Network it can be concluded that initially the network brought together geoparks mainly from Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Greece and Italy.