The Ehime and Oita prefectures are connected by three ferry routes: Yawatahama-Beppu, Misaki-Saganoseki, and Yawatahama-Usuki. The Shikoku and Kyushu islands are linked by these routes. Each route is important in various aspects such as freight and passenger transportation. Passengers especially use these routes to ply between the Shikoku and Kyusyu islands for tourism as well as business. This study aims to investigate the travel behavior of passengers, which promotes the use of these routes.
As a result of the questionnaire survey, 1,649 effective responses were obtained including 471 from the Yawatahama-Beppu route, 610 from the Misaki-Saganoseki route, and 568 from the Yawatahama-Usuki route .
The results are as follows:
(1)Attributes of the passengers and the actual conditions of the use of routes were aligned with each other.
(2)The passengers' purposes varied with each route; for example, the Yawatahama-Beppu route was especially used for sight-seeing.
(3)Based on the place of departure and the destination of passengers, the total migration between the Ehime and Oita prefectures accounted for 32.3%.
