With more and more foreign travelers to Japan visiting the countryside, a variety of efforts are being undertaken in communities to enhance the economic benefits of inbound tourism.
In advancing these efforts, it is important to leverage the local resources from the standpoint of raising the local procurement rate (the percentage of raw materials and labor procured within the community).
In particular, the leveraging of local specialty products not only leads to increased average spending when travelers purchase them as souvenirs, it can also be expected to increase the economic benefits through a variety of avenues, such as specialty products becoming a source of attraction for tourists, leading to a greater volume of travelers.
Therefore, in this special feature, we examine the diverse roles which local specialty products play in increasing the economic impact of inbound tourism.