Tourism as a Key for Regional Revitalization?: A Quantitative Evaluation of Tourism Zone Development in Japan

Hyunjung Kim and Eun Jung Kim
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Hyunjung Kim: Institute of Construction and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Eun Jung Kim: Department of Urban Planning, Keimyung University, Daegu 42601, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-24

Abstract: Since the dawn of the 21st century, Japan has switched its national industry strategy from traditional industries—manufacturing and trading—toward tourism. Regional revitalization is a particularly important issue in Japan, and by uniting regions as an integrated tourism zone, the government expects an increase in visits to tourism zones. This study quantitatively evaluates whether the regions that contain a tourism zone experience a significant increase in visitors by using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design. Additionally, it examines the effects of subsidies through regression modeling. The results indicated that the tourism zones that were comprised of a narrow region in the same prefectures experienced a significant increase in visitors. The subsidy on information transmission, measures for the secondary traffic, and space formation had a significant positive impact on the increase in visitors to these tourism zones. Implications on tourism policies, urban and regional development, and community development can be obtained through this study.

Keywords: tourism zone development; regional revitalization; tourism nation; Japanese tourism policy; tourism policy evaluation; pretest and posttest control group design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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