Regional Community Cooperation Research promotes Yamagata’s tourism strategy

Regional Community Cooperation team, Research Institute of Regional Value Creation Management, is promoting three research projects for contributing to Yamagata’s tourism strategy.

Value Creation Research Project for Hot Springs “Onsen”

Regional Community Cooperation team is promoting a project “Research on value creation of Onogawa Onsen by re-evaluation of hot spring quality” which is supported by a grant of Yamagata University Industrial Research Institute in FY2009.

The purpose of this research is to create new value of Onogawa Onsen and to increase the number of customers. The focused topics are tourism strategies to increase repeaters by 1) environmental measures by binary power generation, 2) scientific investigation and analysis of “Quality of Springs”.

Regional Ripple Effects by Business Events

MICE (Meeting, Incentive Travel, Convention, Exhibition / Event) is a general term for business events which have potential attraction of participants. The team is conducting research on the possibility of small and medium scale MICE and the ripple effect in local areas.

For example, a DMC (Destination Management Company) formed by partnering local ryokans in Tendo city is expected to have capabilities to support local MICE. This is an empirical study as a new model of regional version of MICE. In relation to this, Assistant Professor Yumi Takazawa gave a presentation entitled ” The ripple effect of the MICE to the region ” at a conference of City Planning Institute of Japan, 2016 Northeast North Block Research Presentation, Yonezawa city.

Research on Value Creation Innovation with Regional Resource

The research topics are case studies on value creation in use of regional resources. For example, Werfenweng in Austria multiplies tourism and the environment to create new value and attract customers. Through the team’s European case studies, suggestions that lead to regional innovation and aim to create value in Yamagata area have been made. In this research field, Assistant Professor Yumi Takazawa presented the following two conference papers.

(1) Efforts of Small Municipalities Trying Symbiosis of Environment and Tourism Case Study of Werfenweng in Austria (Architectural Institute of Japan in 2017, Chugoku, Hiroshima)

(2) A Study on Changes in Activities and Characteristics of Sustainable Tourism Organizations in Europe (City Planning institute of Japan 2017, Sapporo)

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