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Fieldwork Study of Inbound Tourism in Kesennuma

国際アドミニストレーション研究科

2023.03.26



This article is written by Mr. Mintao Huang, a graduate student in Prof. Kurosawa's seminar of GSIA. 

Ms. Jinyun Wang also wrote the article in Japansese, which is available here: 



 

Two graduate students, Ms. Wan Jinyun and Mr. Mintao Huang have visited Kesennuma city, led by Takekuni KUROSAWA, Ph.D
 


To study the inbound tourism of Kesennuma city, four of the faculty members and the graduate students of Graduate School of International Administration (GSIA) conducted a fieldwork study during the the 12th anniversary of the East Japan earthquake, March 11th through 12th, 2023.

Two graduate students, Ms. Wan Jinyun and Mr. Mintao Huang have visited Kesennuma city, led by Takekuni KUROSAWA, Ph.D, the Associate Professor of GSIA. The visit is also accompanied by Goro KOMATSU, Ph.D, who is also the Associate Professor of GSIA to investigate how the Kesennuma's Destination Marketing/Management Organization (DMO) is empowered by the recent development of Data Science. 
 

Arriving at Kesennuma.

With the Japanese map, it was easy to find Kesennuma city is located at the northeast of this country. When we took off the train ahead Kesennuma, got a short break and moved on, it was so convenient for newcomers to find the tourist information center of Kensennuma city located obviously in the front of the station. In case of need, group members received quite quantities of Kesennuma guidebooks, maps from the kind stuff from the tourist information center. 


We are fortunate to have an interview with a tourist from France at the station. 
 

 

Meeting with a Tourist from France

Something interesting happened when we just got out of lobby of the center. A lady with a European face who held a package on her back. Based on past investigation (foreign tourists account for 1% of the total number of tourists), it was quite rare for European tourists to have a visit here, so we got interest led and decided to interview our foreign friend with first friendly greetings. As everyone knows, it was even more difficult for those foreign visitors during the depression of migration amid of Covid-19. 

One members of our team begun the chat “Hello, where are you from?” Immediately, she was so glad to be welcomed by residents, and become easier to have a chat with us, she explained that she came from France, had been Japan and keeping traveling over five months, although two of her friends had backed France already. She decided to experience more local cities other than several modern cities such as Tokyo or Osaka. When we asked why she would come here, she explained that she just knew here from other partners, and then cheeked the detailed route from internet. After a short international greeting, she was led by the stuff to the rental cycles corner, kept on the cycle’s trip around this tourist city-Kesennuma.


The first BRT in Japan runs on both railways and roads. 
 

 

The First BRT in Japan

After that encounter, we continued our study aiming to walk around the center street. It started with the station, it ends with the Plaza Hotel that booked by Mr. Motegi, the head of Kesennuma Shigoto-Soshutsu (Job-Creating) project, in advance. After we rode on a local BRT (to be described below), we got off at Mitchino-eki which is near the Oya coastal beach. It was not my first time to experience beach scenery of Pacific Coast, but it was wider and brighter than the one I saw at my former residence-Chiba where I had been stayed for 11 months. The coastline is so majestic, and tall walls surrounding the beach impressed us to lose sight of the rushing vehicles on the road behind us. So peaceful the wave was, totally different from the southern as I had seemed. The extremely broad horizon in front of us made us calm down and feel relieved. 


Oyakaigan Station, a Mitchino-eki which is near the Oya coastal beach. 
 


Restruction of Infrastructure (BRT)

Toward Kesennuma’s local traffic system, due to the disaster damage in 2011, the former railway used as the main infrastructure was reconstructed into BRT: Bus Rapid Transit. In BRT, some old railway tracks were disintegrated, and a new bus-dedicated highway is constructed. Its speed and convenience are far beyond the old one. Since this system owns dedicated road, it ensures that the efficiency and the buses can go even outside of the tracks. As a local stuff said, it’s quite rare to see BRT in Japan. It’s meaningful to import new lifestyle into Kesennuma, and many people think it as a characteristic landmark to attract more attentions in this rising tourist city.


The magnificient view of the Oya beach
 


A Dedicated Elevator accesses to Kesennuma Plaza Hotel

After a full day visit, finally we rode the dedicated elevator from the dock at the foot of the mountain up to cliff’s hotel. There is a beautiful altitude difference, which is approximately 10 meters. As the height rises, the sense of distance caused by the height difference becomes fantastic. And then we had a wonderful night scenery as well. 

 

Students’ Presentations, DMO Visit Program, and Discussion

And next day we held our meeting, and the venue is located at Real Shark Museum. The presentation is arranged by Mr. Komatsu, the director of DMO of Kesennuma city. When our group arrived the place in front of the meeting room, one person who is in stuff uniform was easy to be noticed, and that was Mr. Komatsu. We were welcomed enthusiastically by this kind manager. And then he led us to the meeting room for the presentations. 

After a brief introduction, our team members begun to report our research on inbound tourism strategies of Kesennuma. After students’ reports, they discuss what's currently missing in the analysis such as lack of relevant data, and we received many useful comments. Mr. Komatsu then showed us a variety of the local and the updated data, helping us understand real situations in such a tourist city. 

It was no doubt that we got a unique opportunity to have hands-on experiences with what we had discussed many times in our seminar classes before the visit. We believe that this visit will be great assets for our future research. 


Mr. Mintao Huang was giving presentation on the promotion of inbound tourism in Kesennuma. 
Other members of the Kurosawa seminar joined online via zoom.