Development of Tourism in Highland Villages: A Case Study of Kaida-mura, Nagano Prefecture

Abstract

This paper attempts to clarify the development of tourism in highland villages of central Japan. In mountainous areas of Japan, many villages changed greatly due to the decline of fuel production and the emigration of the young generation to industrialized metropolitan areas during the period of higher economic growth after the Second World War. On the other hand, this economic growth brought on the development of recreation and tourism activities owing to the growth of national income, the decrease of working hours and the development of traffic networks. This study investigates the case of Kaida-mura which is located at the foot of Mt. Ontake in the southwestern part of Nagano Prefecture, where tourist resorts have been developed based on the beautiful natural landscape and the cool climate in summer.As a result the following main points were clarified in this paper:1) The council of Kaida-mura established a fundamental law for the development of tourism in 1972. The object of the law was to reserve the natural landscape and to develop the tourism industry in an orderly way. Now the council office authority has an important role in regard to the development of tourism in this area.2) Most of the visitors come in summer mainly from Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo metropolitan regions. They usually visit in small groups and commonly use private cars as their means of travel.3) The main tourism industry here is the accommodation business. All of the accommodations are operated on a family basis and classified into three types, that is, ryokans (Japanese style inns) and minshukus (small family operated lodges) and pensions (boarding accommodations in European style). Ryokans and minshukus are operated by local people. Their family members are sometimes engaged in other side jobs. On the other hand, the operators of pensions are newcomers from outside and engaged in this occupation on a full-time basis. They make their business possible all the year round by offering winter entertainment.In general, the tourism industry here has not yet created on enough employment. Neverheless, it is supposed that this area has a high potential to develop more as a highland resort area in the future.