Study on the Framework of Tourism Management in the Thinly Populated Areas in Japan : Focus on Areas Possessing Cultural Heritages Concerning Local Life and Industry

This study aims to examine the classification and examples of the methods for tourism management in the thinly populated areas which possess the cultural heritages connected to local life and local industries. At first, the examples of the world heritage-listed areas in Japan : Shirakawa-go in Gifu pref., Gokayama in Toyama pref., Hongu in Wakayama pref., Iwami-ginzan in Shimane pref., are examined to derive the classification of the methods for tourism management. Secondly, the proposed framework of tourism management is applied to the recently starting actions for attraction of tourist taken in two areas in Wakayama prefecture. One of the example is the pilot tour program implemented in the fishing village of Saikazaki in Wakayama city in 2017. The other example is the series of measures and projects concerning Japan Heritage concentrating on the disaster prevention culture in Hirogawa town, started in 2018. The applicability of the framework of tourism management as well as the potentials for future development of the methods are considered through these examples.