Cultural ecotourism and the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands

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  • 小笠原における文化的エコツーリズム

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Abstract

In the same way that the Ogasawara Islands have been able to utilize their natural assets as tourist resources, many hope the islands may be able to use their unique cultural heritage to their commercial advantage as a tourism resource well. But the harnessing of local culture as a tourism resource involves many problems. Cultural tourism may negatively impact the natural environment if visitors have to traverse nature areas to view points of cultural interest. Cultural resources themselves have to be protected from destructive visitor activities such as vandalism or graffiti. Furthermore, the feelings of locals must be considered in taking tourist to sensitive sites like graveyards, and privacy concerns are magnified in island communities with small populations. Much more so than with nature interpretation, consideration must be given to the way in which culture is interpreted and presented to visitors as well. Similarly, while an important objective of cultural ecotourism (along with educating tourists about island culture) is bringing tourist money to the island so that the local community can support itself financially, related players must be careful that local culture does not start to alter itself to make it more palatable, accessible or pleasing to the tourists, and in doing so lose its authenticity.

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