Factors Affecting Tourism Performance in Japan: Focus on Differences in Tourism Resources Including Food by Prefecture

The growth of tourism has become one social phenomenon connected with the development of transportation networks（convenience and speeding up of transportation）. Meals are essential for travelers to recognize the true value of regions through the history, traditions, local cuisine and unique gastronomic heritage of each region. In recent years, local food resources as one important cultural commodity for tourism development has attracted attention. However, previous studies on tourism have focused on creating tourism attractions through the development of tourism resources and facilities to meet the demands of tourists. In addition, there have been empirical analyses on factors affecting the performance of the tourism industry, but there is limited analysis considering food as one of the tourism resources. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to clarify the impacts of cultural tourism resources including food, on tourism performance in Japan. Specifically, we introduced a correlation analysis and structural equation modeling（SEM）to prefectural-level statistical data to clarify the impacts of cultural resources on the development of tourism in each region. The results of the path analysis showed a strong positive relationship between cultural attrac-tion indicators and tourism performance, but a weak positive relationship was detected between regional and food-related attractiveness indicators and tourism performance. Additionally, this tendency was strong in the results of 39 prefectures excluding the three major metropolitan areas. Tourist facilities and tourism resources may eventually improve tourism performance by being developed as attractive tourism attractions through two-way communication between tourist des-tinations, related businesses and consumers. However, the strength of rural food is more likely to be recognized as the production area for agriculture, forestry and fishery products rather than as an attractive tourist destination in the current tourism of Japan. Therefore, measures are needed to integrate local food resources with other tourist attractions to fully utilize the strengths of food as a tourist destination.