2026 Volume 33 Pages 101-114
This study aimed to examine the key destination resource attributes valued by inbound tourists visiting Koyasan, a representative wellness tourism destination in Japan, from a sustainable development perspective. Therefore, user-generated content from Tripadvisor was analyzed using content analysis and factor analysis, identified five critical resource attributes: “Accommodation,” “Facilities and Services,” “Nature and Culture,” “Wellness Experience,” and “Food Facilities.” Based on these findings, a discrete choice experiment was employed, and 349 valid questionnaires were collected from inbound tourists. A mixed logit model was applied to examine tourists' preferences and their heterogeneity. The results indicate that “Accommodation” is the most important resource attribute, with a particularly strong preference for “Temple Lodging.” Moreover, considerable heterogeneity exists in tourists' preferences across different resource attributes within Koyasan. To further explore this heterogeneity, a latent class analysis was conducted, classifying inbound tourists into four distinct groups based on their preferences for Koyasan's tourism resources: “Nature and Culture Seekers,” “Food Seekers,” “Wellness Seekers,” and “Temple Lodging Seekers.” The findings indicate that tourists' perceptions and evaluations of destination resource attributes vary across different segments. Accordingly, a comprehensive understanding of these differentiated preferences is essential for formulating strategies that promote sustainable tourism development at the destination level.
