This study challenges the monolithic view of high-income inbound tourists by segmenting them based on their travel activities rather than solely on income. Applying Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis to survey data from 1,350 high-income visitors, the research identifies two primary behavioral dimensions: ‘Consumption/Dining vs. Appreciation’ and ‘Nature vs. Culture/History’. This analysis yielded three distinct segments: Appreciation & Nature Hybrid （53.3％）: The largest group, balancing sightseeing at famous landmarks with nature-based activities.

Urban Consumption & Entertainment （32.2％）: Focused on shopping and dining, characterized by shorter, more frequent trips and lower interest in sustainability.

Cultural Heritage Enthusiasts （14.5％）: A specialized group dedicated to museums and historical sites, exhibiting the highest recommendation intent.

A key finding is that while spending per activity is similar across groups, the purchase rate varies significantly. The study concludes that effective marketing should focus on increasing engagement by offering tailored experiences─such as convenience for the urban segment and in-depth content for the cultural segment─to raise the overall expenditure of this diverse and lucrative market.

This study quantitatively examines how information sources influence destination image and visit intention depending on visitors' prior experience, focusing on a theme park located in a non-metropolitan area of Japan. Using web survey data from 1,289 respondents who recognized Shima Spain Village, one of Japan's theme parks, multi-group structural equation modeling was conducted to compare those who had visited the park and those who had never visited it. Factor analysis revealed that destination image consists of cognitive and affective images. Among previous visitors, commercial information, positive word-of-mouth from family and friends, and positive online information significantly enhanced both cognitive and affective images, whereas negative online information reduced affective image. Among non-visitors, commercial information, positive word-of-mouth, and positive online information positively influenced cognitive image, while commercial and positive online information enhanced affective image; negative online information diminished affective image. Regarding visit intention, a fully mediated structure through cognitive and affective images was observed among previous visitors, whereas partial mediation by commercial information was found among non-visitors. The results suggest that commercial information contributes not only to cognitive understanding and emotional responses but also to behavioral intentions. Overall, the findings clarify the moderating role of prior visit experience in destination image formation and offer practical implications for differentiated communication strategies in theme park marketing.

This study investigates the characteristics of fan tourism from a behavioral perspective by examining the travel behavior of fans of the Japanese YouTuber group “Tokai On-Air”. Based on a web survey of 470 fans （excluding local residents）, the analysis explores how individual life stages, social lifestyles, and media engagement influence visits to Okazaki City, the group's home base. Logistic regression analysis identified three major determinants: （1） economic and temporal constraints related to life stage, （2） extroverted social habits and stress relief motivations, and （3） intimacy with content, particularly through sub-channels. The results reveal that younger and economically unstable groups, such as students, are less likely to visit, whereas socially active and economically stable fans are more likely to travel. Moreover, higher involvement in sub-channel viewing and concentration on specific content strongly promote visits, indicating that everyday digital intimacy mediates physical mobility. Conversely, general YouTube dependency or long-term fandom tends to satisfy fans within the online sphere, with newer fans being more active in visiting. These findings suggest that YouTuber fan tourism represents a nonlinear form of tourist behavior that connects online enthusiasm with offline experiences. Rather than being a unique or exceptional phenomenon, it reflects an extension of general tourist behavior shaped by sociality, digital engagement, and everyday constraints.

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.

With the number of international tourists visiting Japan increasing rapidly, effective complaint resolution in English has become critical. Among the tasks associated with customer service, complaint resolution is crucial for handling operational issues and ensuring customer satisfaction. However, addressing customers' complaints can be extremely difficult and stressful for customer service professionals. This study describes the application of role-playing in a classroom to equip learners with the skills needed for dealing with complaints in English. Role-playing is a suitable methodology for this purpose because it enables learners to apply their knowledge while developing their skills in responding to unexpected situations. In addition to teaching useful words and phrases, the course focused on appropriateness in English, drawing from Brown and Levinson's politeness theory in pragmatics. The learners were given opportunities to recognize cultural differences between Japan and English-speaking countries and determine appropriate language behaviors when interacting with international customers from these countries. Finally, the author discusses the applications of this course within Japan's tourism industry to foster the development of personnel capable of resolving customer complaints in English effectively.

This study qualitatively clarifies the psychological value created by physical travel agencies from the customer's perspective under digital transformation. Based on semi-structured interviews with 15 users analyzed through GTA, this study identifies that Perceived Similarity between customers and sales staff is multidimensional - comprising cognitive, affective, and non-verbal cues. This perception mediates the formation of relational experience value, specifically trust, credibility, and conviction, which function to reduce online uncertainty and drive purchasing confidence. Furthermore, pre-visit cues such as the store manager's atmosphere and collective similarity with other customers enhance reassurance. These findings redefine the physical store as a relational trust-building platform, offering theoretical and managerial implications for OMO strategies.

This study aims to clarify the psychological mechanisms through which viewing OTT drama content influences tourism behavior. Specifically, it examines how audience involvement - both behavioral and emotional - affects tourism motivation and visit intention through the mediating role of tourism affinity. A survey was conducted with 546 Japanese Netflix users who had watched Korean dramas, and data were analyzed using PROCESS macro model 6. The results show that audience involvement positively influences both tourism motivation and tourism affinity, which in turn fully mediate the effect on visit intention. In particular, audience involvement does not directly affect visit intention; rather, it exerts an indirect influence through tourism affinity and tourism motivation. Academically, this study bridges media psychology and tourism studies by empirically verifying the mediating role of the newly introduced concept of tourism affinity. Practically, it demonstrates that visual content serves as a strategic tool for creating emotional connections with tourism destinations, thereby enhancing tourism motivation and visit intention. The findings suggest the effectiveness of storytelling-based tourism promotion strategies.

This study examines how tourists' personality traits influence their customer journeys, drawing on large-scale survey data collected by a regional Destination Management Organization （DMO） in Japan. Using 5,306 valid responses from over 8,000 participants, the study employs multiple and logistic regression analyses to assess the effects of demographic, situational, and psychographic variables - particularly Big Five personality traits - on behaviors and evaluations across three stages of the customer journey: pre-trip, during-trip, and post-trip. The results indicate that traditional demographic variables such as gender, age, and residence exert limited influence, whereas situational factors （e.g., travel companions） and personality traits （especially openness and agreeableness） significantly affect travel behavior, satisfaction, and revisit intention. These findings suggest that DMO marketing strategies should move beyond attribute-based segmentation and incorporate psychological and relational dimensions into persona design. By integrating personality traits into data-driven marketing, DMOs can enhance the accuracy of targeting, the quality of tourist experiences, and the sustainability of regional branding.

This study examines whether workation - defined as the combination of remote work with stays in tourist or rural areas - can serve as a strategic tool of human capital management in Japan. An online survey of 1,600 employees compared three groups: （1） active workation users, （2） teleworkers without workation experience, and （3） employees who commute to the office daily.

Respondents rated the effects of workation on retention intention, work engagement, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, innovative behavior, and boundary-spanning learning, and completed 40 items on career values, lifestyle preferences, and innovativeness. A maximum likelihood factor analysis with varimax rotation of 22 selected items identified three latent dimensions: “Career Autonomy with Exploratory Experiences,” “Innovative Orientation,” and “Networking and Blended Work–Life Orientation.”

Workation users scored consistently higher on all three factors and reported significantly higher retention intention, work engagement, innovative behavior, and job/workplace satisfaction than office-based workers, while teleworkers showed intermediate profiles. Differences in private-life satisfaction and cross-border learning were mixed and should be interpreted cautiously.

These findings suggest that workation is not merely an employee benefit but can serve as a strategic mechanism to attract and retain self-directed, innovative employees and to foster boundary-spanning learning, thereby supporting the objectives of human capital–oriented management.

This study examines gender-based differences in the behavior of Japanese spectators who attended the 2023 Rugby World Cup （RWC） in France. Following Japan's historic victory over South Africa in 2015 and the successful hosting of the 2019 RWC, rugby has grown in popularity in Japan, particularly among women. The 2023 tournament marked a resurgence in international travel, with many Japanese fans visiting France through fully booked tour packages.

The analysis found that male spectators were more likely to have a long-standing interest in rugby, attend more than 10 matches, and travel alone. In contrast, female spectators were more likely to have become fans after 2019, attended fewer matches, and preferred traveling with companions. Women also reported stronger interest in nature and shopping as travel motivations. These results highlight the importance of considering gender-specific preferences when developing sports tourism products.

Although age-related differences were not statistically significant, prior research suggests that customizing travel experiences based on both gender and age may enhance overall satisfaction. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for planning the 2027 RWC in Australia and contribute to the broader understanding of highly engaged leisure travelers.

This study examines the potential of “New Picturesque Tourism,” which integrates art and nature to enhance emotional engagement and mutual understanding. In response to declining public interaction with both museums and natural environments in Japan, the research investigates how art can function as an interpretive medium to reconnect people with nature and art. Inspired by the movement of 18th-century British picturesque aesthetics, where landscape painting influenced perceptions of nature, the study conducted an experimental tour combining art appreciation and nature experience at the Morohashi Museum of Modern Art and the Goshikinuma nature trail in Bandai-Asahi National Park in Fukushima. Participants viewed European landscape paintings with expert interpretation before enjoying nature walk. Analyses of photos, questionnaires, and open-ended responses revealed that most participants experienced perceptual changes and increased interest in both art and natural landscapes. These findings suggest that integrating art and nature engagement deepens tourism experiences and that the possibility of other types of New Picturesque Tourism. The study also proposed an evaluative framework linking aesthetic appreciation and nature interpretation, contributing to future models of art-nature tourism.

This study examines the relationship between organizational capabilities and the resource acquisition capability of Destination Management Organizations（DMOs）in Japan, with particular attention to how DMOs acquire, possess, and utilize managerial resources to achieve outcomes from digital initiatives and marketing activities. Using a mixed-method approach, the research combined exploratory interviews with a quantitative survey of 89 registered DMOs. Marketing performance was operationalized through search demand growth on Google Trends as an indicator of regional recognition and interest. Principal component analysis revealed that the first component ─ comprising the presence of specialized marketing personnel, established data analytics infrastructure, and flexible financial resources ─ showed a significant positive correlation with performance indicators（r ≈ 0.4, p < 0.01）. The findings suggest that DMO performance depends not merely on individual competence but on the organization's integrated capability to execute data-driven marketing with adequate resource autonomy. The study highlights the decisive role of professional human resources, data infrastructure for KPI monitoring, and discretionary financial capacity. These results provide theoretical and practical implications for designing comprehensive policies that enhance the organizational capability of DMOs toward sustainable regional competitiveness in the digital era.

UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport（DCMS）had officially announced a radical restructuring toward destination management organizations（DMOs）across England. The government is to provide £4 million for a new accreditation scheme that will highlight the best DMOs. Under the scheme, DMOs will be renamed Local Visitor Economy Partnerships（LVEPs）to capture the wider strategic focus to make destination great place not only to visit but also to live, work, study and invest. The funding is also used to create a pilot in North East England, giving one top-tier LVEP and a group of LVEPs the opportunity and investment to restructure under a new model. The drastic restructuring came following independent review into DMOs, carried out by the Chair of VisitEngland's Nick de Bois. The de Bois review found that the landscape is over-crowded and fragmented. De Bois recommended a tiering model for DMOs including multi-year core funding. The aim of this paper is to explore the newly created accreditation scheme of LVEPs on top of the pilot taking place at North East England under the brand name of Destination North East England, collaborated with three LVEPs: Newcastle Gateshead Initiative as the top-tier, and Visit Northumberland and Visit County Durham as the second-tier, and four municipal governments.

In the era of VUCA, the qualities and abilities necessary to live are diverse. Recently, “inquiry-based learning” has been attracting attention in the acquisition of these qualities and abilities. This is because there are many opportunities in the inquiry process to develop them. However, inquiry-based learning is not something that can be learned only within schools; much can also be gained by going outside of school. Tourism plays a significant role in this. Moreover, I would like to reveal that these qualities and abilities will be useful in society in the future and will also contribute to the richness of the mind, or well-being. Here, we will go as far as constructing that hypothesis.

This paper systematically reviews 160 academic studies published between 2005 and 2024 that examine the interaction between air passenger transport and tourism. The literature was collected from the WOS/SSCI database based on searches of titles, abstracts, and author keywords. A keyword-based grouping procedure was employed, in which conceptually similar keywords were classified into the following seven conceptual groups: sustainable development, policy and strategy, management and administration, services and service quality, tourism and destinations, industry research, and research methodology. The analysis reveals that greenhouse gas emissions, air transport liberalization, and tourism demand are among the most frequently discussed topics. Moreover, the number of publications has shown a gradual upward trend, with a particularly notable increase after 2016. By systematically organizing existing studies and outlining the overall structure of the field, this paper contributes to clarifying current research focuses and identifying future challenges. Looking ahead, further development in this research domain is expected through the expansion of data sources, diversification of search strategies, and advancement of analytical methods, which will facilitate both theoretical refinement and practical applications regarding the relationship between air passenger transport and tourism.

Accommodation facilities in Japanese temples and shrines have evolved in response to the growing number of international tourists, yet research on this transformation remains limited. This paper examines temple lodgings（shukubō）in Koyasan as a case study, focusing on how the influx of inbound tourists since its inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 has influenced the spatial organization and religious traditions of these lodgings. The results of the research show that since the 2000s, shukubō have increasingly shifted from traditional rooms divided by sliding paper doors（fusuma）to walled private rooms, some now offering en-suite bathrooms or toilets. In addition, these facilities attract tourists by providing opportunities to experience monastic life within historic Buddhist architecture and cultural properties, while packaging activities such as morning prayers, sutra copying, Ajikan meditation, and vegetarian Buddhist cuisine（shōjin ryōri）as accessible religious experiences. The study discusses that shukubō in Koyasan have been reconstructed from spaces of prayer into wellness-oriented places, where tourists can seek healing and self-transformation through participatory religious practices.

Until 2019, tourists from China accounted for most visitors to Japan from overseas. Due to the new coronavirus, there are currently almost no Chinese visitors to Japan, but the number is expected to increase again in 2023 as the Japanese government eases border measures. For this reason, “tourists” who connect tourists with tourist destinations are considered to play an important role. In this study, we focused on the role of professional tour conductor at the “Shirakawa-go Light Up” local event in Shirakawa Village, Gifu Prefecture, and conducted interviews to clarify the role of professional tour operators in relation to Chinese visitors to Japan. We considered how professional tour conductor can respond to various constraints and successfully realize trips for inbound tourists. As a result, professional tour operators are crucial when Chinese tourists tour Japan, and it becomes clear that local event tourism is influenced by the efforts of tour conductor. On the other hand, the work of tour conductor has made it possible for foreign tourists to participate in Japan's regional tourism events.