**1. Introduction**

There are some major transformations taking place in mature tourist destinations. These destinations correspond to the places with large tradition on touristic activities and situate in the mature or decline phases of the cycle of life of touristic destination [1] to refer the sun and beach tourism as Tenerife Island. These are the results of both the obsolete nature of tourism services, equipment, and infrastructures, as well as changes in the profile of demand for more sustainable products.

Both transformations have motivated tourism agents to seek innovative, creative, and imaginative solutions that prevent the decline of destinations and that represent a claim for visitors. The main examples are the changes in the touristic laws associate to the sustainability concept, the transformation of the urban spaces in the private and public places in the touristic cities, and the creation of the new touristic products such as geotourism. In this sense, within these new motivations, the diversification of the offer in the destination is being key. Therefore, the creation of new tourism products and experiences has become one of the main challenges for mature destinations to continue to occupy a significant role in the world tourism map at a time when the tourism sector is being very dynamic.

Within the diversity of new products and tourist experiences that are being developed in many parts of the world [2–3], is geotourism. Although it is true that in its landscape and esthetic conception, relief was present in the declaration of the first national parks in the world such as Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, etc., and in Spain (Picos de Europa, Teide, etc.), it is not until recent times geotourism has increased significantly [4–7], contributing to the creation of the European and global networks of geoparks in the last 20 years. Therefore, geotourism is a relatively modern term that was implemented in the modern society but welcomes multiple initiatives in different places and from different geological and geographical approaches, but they do not have to be mutually exclusive [7–8].

The island of Tenerife is an international tourist destination whose main attraction is the sun and the beach that attracts millions of visitors every year. However, Tenerife has a great variety of natural resources and tourist attractions that could diversify its offer and be the claim of other types of tourists [9]. In this sense, this chapter shows the main results of the project "Tfgeotourism: strengthening the economic and business fabric linked to the tourism sector of Tenerife by promoting volcanotourism," whose objective is to create different geotourism products and experiences that contribute to diversifying the offer of leisure activities on the island and that can be implemented by tourism companies that already exist in Tenerife or that may be created as a result of this offer of volcano tourism products.

Therefore, the general objective and the main results of this project are in accordance with the objectives of the Global Geopark Network (GGN) to develop a leisure offer supported by geotourism that contributes to diversifying tourism and traditional economic activities in Tenerife through the creation of innovative local companies, new jobs, and highly qualified training courses for the different tourism agents [10]. But at the same time, Tfgeotourism is also in line with some of the objectives proposed by the Geoparks Commission of the International Geographical Union (IGU), which relates them to their role as a tool to communicate, recreate, and conserve nature or to understand the wide range of processes that affect the sustainable development of geoparks, including the natural environment, political, and socioeconomic processes [11].

In this sense, the choice of volcanic geotourism within the diversity of new tourism products and experiences in Tenerife responds to several reasons: 1. The island is a consolidated and well-known international destination to which several million tourists arrive annually. 2. The volcanic landscape of the island is diverse and, in it, practically all the forms and eruptive processes can be recognized, giving rise to one of the most geodiverse volcanic spaces from the point of view of the geological and geomorphological heritage [12]. 3. Tenerife already has a geotourism offer in some places such as the Teide National Park, being the most visited park in the Canary Islands and Spain, with an average of about 3 million annually [13, 14], and also in other places such as Barranco de Masca, the Macizo de Anaga, or the volcanic tube of La Cueva del Viento. 4. A large part of the insular volcanic geoheritage is not being exploited for tourism, because the principal activities associate

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**Figure 1.**

*TFgeotourism: A Project to Quantify, Highlight, and Promote the Volcanic Geoheritage…*

to the geotourism focused in the national park and some natural protected areas. 5. The practice of geotourism does not necessarily require a specialized public, which makes it very attractive and feasible for all tourists and visitors who come to

archipelago (**Figure 1**). It has been built up as a result of the accumulation of a wide variety (mafic, felsic) of fundamental volcanic materials in a relatively short period of time, which results in a world-unique variety of volcano-related tourism features in an accessible scale. In Tenerife, this great geodiversity includes the stravolcanoes, shield volcanoes, calderas, cinder cones, maars, tuff cones and rings, and lava fields, all exposed beautifully in cliffs, ravines, beaches, deposits, etc. (**Figure 2**). This volcanic geodiversity is a nonrenewable heritage [15] with various main characteristics associated with its natural and cultural heritage [16, 17]. The diversity of forms and processes of relief both directly related to volcanism as well as erosion and accumulation make up the volcanic heritage [18] and are responsible for the geodiversity of volcanic

Tenerife is one of the main tourist destinations in the world in relation to the number of accommodation places (>137,000 in September 2019) and the number of visitors it receives, which in 2019 exceeded 5 million [19]. We must also add the local visitors and hikers who increase this number. In turn, Tenerife has a great variety of new tourism products and experiences (geotourism, astrotourism, gastronomic, sports, health, bird watching, sailor, hiking, diving, whale watching, etc.), which are associated with diversity of attractions that the island has. Therefore, Tenerife has a diversified tourist offer capable of responding to this increasingly informed,

*Location of Tenerife volcanic island. Source: Own elaboration from the DEM base of Grafcan.*

) and highest (3718 m a.s.l.) island of the Canary

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93723*

Tenerife is the largest (2034 km2

geoheritage of Tenerife Island.

**2. Tenerife a laboratory for the volcano tourism**

Tenerife.

*TFgeotourism: A Project to Quantify, Highlight, and Promote the Volcanic Geoheritage… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93723*

to the geotourism focused in the national park and some natural protected areas. 5. The practice of geotourism does not necessarily require a specialized public, which makes it very attractive and feasible for all tourists and visitors who come to Tenerife.
