Tourist Behaviors in the Region at the Foot of Mt. Fuji

An Analysis Focusing on the Effect of Travel Distance

Abstract

 This study examines tourist behavior in the Mt. Fuji area in terms of distance traveled by tourists, and clarifies differences in types of tourist and their movements based on distance traveled. Moreover, it describes the social impact of the area's recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site on the behavior of tourists. Tourism in the Mt. Fuji area began as Fuji Tohai, which means “climbing for worship” in the Edo era, and was popularized by subsequent tourism development. At present, the Fuji area is a tourism region that provides opportunities for sightseeing, leisure, and recreational activities, such as exploring and staying in the Fuji Five Lakes region, to visitors who live in or near urban and metropolitan areas. By analyzing the results of a questionnaire survey given to domestic individual travelers who use private cars, we found that their behavior is characterized by differences related to travel distance, although most of them share the common purpose of experiencing natural landscapes during their travels. Neighborhood residents tend to visit for daily leisure activities, whereas visitors from distant places tend to make overnight trips and visit only major tourist attractions. This shows the nature of the concentric model, which means that travel distance influences the behavior of tourists, their perceptions, and frequency of trips, and vice versa. However, we simultaneously discovered a distortion in this model, which is caused by the locality of the Mt. Fuji area. Tourism in the Mt. Fuji area currently faces changes resulting from the significant social impact of the area's recognition as a World Heritage site: Tourism demand is increasing, especially among persons who live in more distant places, which means foreigners living abroad in this study, and local residents are working to develop tourist areas and touring routes, focusing on World Heritage. Tourist behavior, such as perception and movements, have gradually changed in parallel with social and environmental changes.