2026 Volume 33 Pages 41-50
This study examines Destination Management Organizations （DMOs） through the lens of policy transfer theory, focusing on Japan's experience in adopting this concept as a national policy. By conducting semi-structured interviews with five executive board members from four different DMOs in Japan, the motivations behind their establishment, initial challenges, and key actors involved in the policy transfer process were investigated. Drawing on the conceptual framework of Dolowitz and Marsh （2000）, the study reveals that despite being introduced within a top–down policy structure, the diffusion of the DMO policy was strongly driven by initiative and public acceptability at the local level. The findings further demonstrate that the Dolowitz and Marsh （2000） framework is analytically applicable beyond traditional state-to-state transfer and can be effectively used to explain intra-national policy transfer from the perspective of local actors.
