| Project category | CTR Research Project Support Program |
| Project title | Ecotourism Model for Shiretoko Peninsula UNESCO World Heritage Site |
| Research Unit | Sustainability |
| Primary investigator | Abhik Chakraborty |
| Co investigators | Takeshi Takenaka |
| Project period | 2018/5/1～2019/3/31 |
| Project summary | This project is a follow-up of the research project of 2017-18 supported by CTR, and aims to: (1) Implement a questionnaire survey at World Heritage Visitor Centers of Shiretoko Peninsula to understand visitor attitudes towards natural environment/conservation (2) Collect materials for an English guidebook/natural heritage explanation manual for international tourists The principal researcher will coordinate with the Ministry of the Environment and local specialists for both survey implementation and material collection for guidebook/manual. |
Activity reports
The project outcomes were published in an internationally peer reviewed journal on an open access format, and were reported in an international academic conference; making the achievement rate higher than initially expected. The target journal was changed to allow timely publication and the potential impact of open access.
- Peer Reviewed Publication: A Qualitative Exploratory Analysis of Ecological Integrity for Safeguarding World Natural Heritage Sites: Case Study of Shiretoko Peninsula, Japan. A. Chakraborty & T. Takenaka. Heritage 2019, 2(1), 898-919; https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage2010060
- Peer Reviewed International Conference Presentation: ‘The problem of tourism sustainability in an age of global environmental change: Insights from Shiretoko World Heritage Site, Japan’. 3rd Asian Symposium on Sustainable Tourism for Development (AST4D 2019) held in Hiroshima, Japan from 22nd to 23rd March, 2019. * The paper was awarded as ‘The best abstract that conveys the conference themes and sustainability goals’.
In addition, a workshop with local collaborators and stakeholders were held at the Shiretoko Foundation, and a session with information exchange with the Ministry of the Environment’s Shiretoko Rausu Office was held during the project period.
