Current Status of Ecotourism Guides and Guidance and Countermeasures for Problems Concerning Ecotourism Guides and Guidance

Abstract

This study aims to obtain basic knowledge about problems concerning ecotourism guides and guidance and countermeasures for them. This study clarifies that ecotourism guides cannot make their living by working full-time and they are performed by elderly or retired persons, based on results of a questionnaire survey to members of the "Urbandai Eco-guides Group". It also clarifies that countermeasures to problems of aging and the shortage of successors of guides are not taken in most areas promoting ecotourism while countermeasures problems of maintenance or improvement of quality of guidance are taken in most areas promoting ecotourism, based on results of a questionnaire survey to organizations promoting ecotourism in Japan. This study concludes that it is necessary that diverse stakeholders reconfirm the meaning and goals of ecotourism and reconsider significance of guides in each area.