The growth of
tourism
has become one social phenomenon connected with the development of transportation networks (convenience and speeding up of transportation). Meals are essential for travelers to recognize the true value of regions through the history, traditions, local cuisine and unique gastronomic heritage of each region. In recent years, local food resources as one important cultural commodity for
tourism
development has attracted attention.
However, previous studies on
tourism
have focused on creating
tourism
attractions through the development of
tourism
resources and facilities to meet the demands of tourists. In addition, there have been empirical analyses on factors affecting the performance of the
tourism
industry, but there is limited analysis considering food as one of the
tourism
resources. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to clarify the impacts of cultural
tourism
resources including food, on
tourism
performance in Japan. Specifically, we introduced a correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) to prefectural-level statistical data to clarify the impacts of cultural resources on the development of
tourism
in each region.
The results of the path analysis showed a strong positive relationship between cultural attraction indicators and
tourism
performance, but a weak positive relationship was detected between regional and food-related attractiveness indicators and
tourism
performance. Additionally, this tendency was strong in the results of 39 prefectures excluding the three major metropolitan areas. Tourist facilities and
tourism
resources may eventually improve
tourism
performance by being developed as attractive
tourism
attractions through two-way communication between tourist destinations, related businesses and consumers. However, the strength of rural food is more likely to be recognized as the production area for agriculture, forestry and fishery products rather than as an attractive tourist destination in the current
tourism
of Japan. Therefore, measures are needed to integrate local food resources with other tourist attractions to fully utilize the strengths of food as a tourist destination.
JEL Classification:Q01
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