A study on tourism education dealing with problems concerning inbound tourism : The case of pupils' tourism guide activity in Wakayama Prefecture

The number of foreign tourists has been increasing, but Japanese people do not seem to have the proper ability and attitude to accept the presence of foreign tourists. The Japanese people — especially tourism industry employees — need to deepen their understanding of other cultures and enhance their English communication ability. Previous researches have suggested that tourism guide activities enabled pupils to enhance their communication ability. Therefore, the researcher hypothesized that pupils’ tourism guide in English would enhance their English communication ability and they would be able to gain a deeper understanding of different cultures through interaction with Englishspeaking guests. The pupils are hosts and possible future tourism industry employees, so enhancing their English communication ability and deepening their understanding of other cultures would likely lead to improving the intangible problems concerning Japanese people and visiting tourists. The research objective was lessons to develop English junior tourism guides at Mihama town, Wakayama prefecture. The researcher interviewed two lecturers and administered questionnaires to participants who were pupils between fifthgrade elementary school and third-grade high school. This research found that although participants did not deepen their understanding of other cultures, their English communication ability was improving.