Is the Hokkaido Tourism Promotion Plan Just a Trial Balloon ?

Abstract

Hokkaido government intends to vitalize the Hokkaido economy by promoting tourism. The target was set to increase the number of foreign tourists who visit Hokkaido by 540 thousand until 2011. However, nobody has verified the feasibility of this target. We statistically tested this feasibility and found that the target would be achievable. In addition, we found that the increases of foreign tourists would increase regional output about 60 billion yen and reduce its unemployment rate by 0.3 points.