The Nexus Between Tourism Demand and Regional Characteristics: the Case of Japanese Islands

This paper explores the relationships between tourism demand and regional characteristics of the Japanese islands. A regression model was carried out for 113 islands designated by the Remote Island Development Act, which is one of the laws designed to promote rural areas in Japan. Results show that the transportation situation was related to the demand of arrival tourists, whereas the results were insignificant for the model with the response variable as lodging tourists. Meanwhile, location factors were significant for lodging tourists—that is, open sea areas have more lodging tourism demand than islands in inland sea areas. Furthermore, this study found that tourism demand was influenced by the affiliations of the prefectures. The islands belonging to prefectures that have megacities attracted more tourists than other areas. This means that islands located near small cities would have disadvantages in the tourism market. Based on these results, the degree of development in island regions, such as transportation systems, is influenced by tourism demand due to accessibility. In addition, the situation of nearby cities is also influenced by tourism demand on islands. This shows that island development would be associated with the urban areas of prefectures where the islands are located.