IDEAS FOR GOODLike the various sustainable terms, it can also be daunting on first hearing “sustainable tourism”. Sustainable Tourism is the kind of tourism that values economic, social and environmental effects of the present and future, while answering to the needs of the tourists, the industry, the environment and the hosting region.
The Sustainable Destinations Global Top 100 Awards is held annually. The latest announcement in September 2018 revealed one of the winners to be a Japanese city.
Kamaishi City, winner of Sustainable Destinations Global Top 100 Awards
Kamaishi City is a small town of approximately 3,500 people in the southeast region of Iwate Prefecture. The prefecture is abundant with nature, exemplified by its coast line which features the Sanriku Coast, known as one of the world’s three best fishing spots. It is also home to both Sanriku Fukko National Parkand Goyozan Prefectural National Park are listed as Prefectural Nature Conservation Areas.
Kamaishi City will be the only location in the whole Tohoku region to serve as a venue for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in September. The year 2019 will likely become a memorable year for Kamaishi City as it gets introduced to the world.
8 years has passed since the city suffered damage from the tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. And now the city is facing a time of change. It is taking its first step to launch Sustainable Tourism.
Kamaishi City launches Sustainable Tourism
In February this year, Open Field Museum Kamaishi International Tourism Forum 2019 commemorated the launch. Foreign lecturers were invited to speak about overseas trends of Sustainable Tourism. They also included case studies of International Certification of Sustainable Tourism and Geopark. Moreover, there were talks about DMO, an organization that plays a key role in management and operation. On this occasion, we would like to introduce some of its content that was particularly exciting.
Why is Kamaishi City currently aim for Sustainable Tourism?
In 2017, Kamaishi City announced “Open Field Museum Kamaishi Concept”, an attempt that captures the whole region as a “living museum.” Its goal is to create meaningful tourism for both Kamaishi residents and tourists. The city’s dose so leveraging on Kamaishi’s appeal, which includes its nature, history, culture and people. It also wants people to discover these appeals through hands-on experiences..
Furthermore, the Sanriku Coast, where Kamaishi City is located, is a region that not has a long history of Earth-friendly activities, but also passes on memories of the Earthquake to future generations. With such importance, the Sanriku Coast was certified as a Japanese Geopark in 2013, under the name “Sanriku Geopark.” Moreover, UNESCO considers Global Geoparks as a place of “sustainable coexistence between people and the Earth.” This certification thus pushes Kamaishi City towards its goal of Sustainable Tourism.
Exploring on how Kamaishi can achieve Sustainable Tourism
Mr. Kubo serves as the Kamaishi Regional Coordinator of Kamaishi DMC Co. He explained how important it is for local regions to aim for Sustainable Tourism.
“The Rugby World Cup will only bring ‘temporal’ development through international tourism. But the International Certification for Sustainable Tourism will provide a gradual ‘continuous’ growth to the region through international tourism.”
Three lecturers gave their keynote speeches at the forum to support Kamaishi City start towards Sustainable Tourism. They reveal hints on how Kamaishi should evolve as a sustainable tourist site in the future.
Keynote Speech (1): Tourism is essential to accomplishing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The first lecturer was Ms. Ariana Luquin Sanchez, Deputy Manager, Program and Public Relations, UNWTO Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific. She shared how tourism was essential to accomplishing SDGs.
The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the SDGs in 2015. Looking closer, there are about 400 indicators all together in the 17 goals. All of the 17 goals can relate to tourism. However, Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), Goal 12 (Responsible Production and Consumption) and Goal 14 (Life Below Water) seem specifically apt to tourism.
Sanchez explained that the tourism sector and the sustainable international network need to collaborate to take the next steps. This will allow them to achieve the goals set for sustainable development and realize concrete strategies in the future.
Keynote Speech (2): There is no goal to the path to create a sustainable tourist site
Mr. Mihee Kang gave the second keynote speech, who acquired the first Ph.D in tourism in Korea. He now serves as director of the Asia-Pacific region of Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) as well as a member of the Korea National Geopark.
It’s important to continue challenging for a “Sustainable Tourism International Certificate”
Kamaishi City was the only Japanese site selected for the Sustainable Destinations Global Top 100 Awards. But its path toward a sustainable tourist site is only just starting.
In order to be nominated for the Top 100 Awards, the site needs to fulfill half of the 30 significant items among the standard 100 items of the “Sustainable Tourism International Certificate.” Of course, Kamaishi City fulfills all 30 items at the moment.
However, the region needs to evolve if the city wants to continue being one of the Top 100 Awards. Even after being selected, it needs to overcome new standards every year, while spending years to finally become the ideal sustainable tourist site they aspire to be.
Winning Sustainable Destinations is an opportunity to develop sustainable tourism
Nonetheless, winning the Top 100 Awards has revealed business opportunities to elevate Kamaishi city as an international tourist site.
It can now take part in a exclusive global network with Top 100 Awards regions, thereby connect online with advanced regions of the world. By doing so, Kamaishi City can get hold of latest developments in and cases studies of Sustainable Tourism. Moreover, it can gain direct advice on acquiring certification from Global Leaders’ personnel, who are in charge of selecting the sites.
However, these standards are nothing more than a framework. By comparing ourselves with the standards, we can identify gaps. But it does not identify or solve our issues. Instead, it is a tool that demonstrates both strengths and weaknesses, which the organization operating the tourist site can use upon applying for a certification. It will maximize merits and minimize weak points.
Furthermore, in order to make use of these standards and create a sustainable tourist site, we need to provide an environment that is also convenient for travel. Here is an actual example of how one overseas tourist site approached the issue.
Achieving Sustainable Tourism through reducing plastic waste
Mihee Kang always carries his own bottle when he travels to reduce plastic waste. There are similar trends for carrying personal bottles in Japan too, but they have trouble in finding places where they can refill their bottles. Even if they carry their own bottles, tourists may end up purchasing plastic bottles at convenience stores because they can’t find spots to refill.
That’s where Mihee Kang introduced a “Refill My Bottle” project that began in Bali of Indonesia. It’s a service where you can refill your bottle with clean, drinkable water at cafes, resort areas, art museums and shops for free or for a very low cost. It is estimated that over 6 million plastic bottles discarded a month in Bali. This project therefore allows tourists and locals to secure access to fresh water without having to purchase plastic water bottles. Currently, this service is available in 750 sites in 9 countries including Bali, Laos and South Korea.
Mihee Kang also shared another example. The Ministry of the Environment of South Korea is banning the usage of plastic cups in cafes to reduce waste. (South Korea usually dispose of their waste at sanitary landfills.) As such, no plastic cups are available even if the customer drops by a cafe for a few minutes for takeaway coffee.
We see such efforts not only in advanced nations, but also in developing nations. “Advanced countries are not necessarily eco-friendly,” said Mihee Kang. Places like Bali and Thailand – where tourism is essential – are more advanced than developed countries in the tourism sectors. There are many lessons we can learn from them.
Keynote Speech (3) “Area Management” that world standard DMO ought to put forth
Mr Kazuo Takahashi, professor of Kindai University, Faculty of Economics gave the third lecture. He shared why we need to install a Japanese version of DMO (Destination Management Organization), while stating its difference compared to the conventional tourist industry.
He explained that there are limitations to the Japanese conventional methods of promoting tourism. Up until now, regions have built their plans on tourist promotion based on the Japanese market. However, the population is bound to decline, centering around the working-age population. Under these circumstances, regions then need to reexamine these conventional methods and start accepting and marketing to foreign tourists visiting Japan.
At this point, Takahashi stressed the importance of DMO, which plays the role of building attractive content for tourist sites suited to the region. It also monitors beneficial information towards creating Sustainable Tourism. Today, Kamaishi DMO gets in between the tourism markets and managing its own promotion. This is something that conventional tourist associations couldn’t do.
Above all, Takahashi explained that regulations related to tourism have loosened recently and management styles of tourism have also broadened. Let’s have a look at some examples of area management put forth by other regions which Takahashi talked about.
“SEKAI HOTEL” which has built a hotel out of an entire shopping mall
The deregulation of Hotel Business Law, has made it easier for tourism business targeted at foreigners. For example, front desk work is simplified and paid freelance interpreters are deployed.
“SEKAI HOTEL FUSE” is one example that leverages on this. It created a hotel out of a whole region by renovating vacant stores of a shopping mall and turning them into accommodation. Even though the exterior may look like a shop for ladies’ fashion, the inside is a hotel.
There are deep tours for people who stay at the hotel too. These include experiencing the daily lives of the local people by letting guests communicate with shop owners and locals at restaurants in the shopping mall. They can also eat breakfast and dinner at the restaurants inside the shopping mall if they wish. Takahashi thinks highly of SEKAI HOTEL’s business approach.
“For foreign tourists traveling Japan, the daily lives of the Japanese people are a resource. It’s important that we build a structure that revitalizes the whole region and benefits the locals too.”
Ride sharing service Yabukuru
Transportation is another issue for travelling around regional areas is the issue of transportation. To tackle this problem, From May 2018, Yabu City, Hyogo Prefecture launched “Yabukuru” in May 2018. It is a transportation service in which locals earns by ferrying tourists with their own cars. An NPO organization called “Yabu City My Car Transportation Network” comprised of taxi companies, the Tourist Association and the local people, takes on the role of transporting people who travel short distances in secluded areas in the mountains.
Takahashi clarified the role of both the administration and DMO. “New businesses will emerge if the administration improves infrastructure, loosens regulations and secures local resources. At the same time, I think it’s important for DMO to conduct destination marketing and promotion.”
Editorial Note
The message is consistent in the three keynote speeches: “communication with the locals is essential” to achieve Sustainable Tourism.
Today, we face issues of excessive tourism, where too many tourists flood into famous tourist sites such as Barcelona, Venice and Kyoto. We need to inform locals of the demerits should a region become a tourist site. For example, the protection of privacy of the locals. Local communities need to be sustainable too to call Sustainable Tourism a success. How can we ask tourists to be sustainable otherwise?
Sustainable Tourism is like a trip in itself and there is no goal. It depends on the region if it wants to continue pursuing that trip. In that sense, Kamaishi’s challenge has only begun.
This article was originally published on IDEAS FOR GOOD.
Translated by Ayako Karino.
