A study on the process of regional tourism management in collaboration between public and private sectors

Abstract

In urban and regional planning, the necessity for partnership among various stakeholders is recognized as a global issue from the viewpoint of effectiveness and regional sustainability. In Japan, it is also important that the local private sector be involved in not only the planning phase but also the implementation phase, due to severe financial problems and the devolution of power from central to local government. This is an essential element for each region’s sustainability. Moreover, with the progress of globalization and decentralization, regional problems become complicated and far-reaching for one local government. Up to now, for example, in the region, public-private partnerships have been advanced through efforts to put in activities by city district area such as central city. However, even for policy issues with a wide-area spatial scale such as industry and tourism, etc., which are difficult to be handled by any single local government, cooperation between the public sector and the private sector is well recognized. In this study, we discuss the domestic trend of public private partnerships by analysing the latest regional policies aimed at regional revitalization of wide geographical regions spanning several local government areas in Japan. Following which, we take up the ‘Tourism Zone Development Plan’ as one example of the wide-area public-private partnership, and clarify the trend in system review for enhancing the effectiveness of planning as well as the progress of the formation of a wide-area public-private partnership.