Sustainable creation of tourism areas
open to the world: Tanabe City Kumano
Tourism Bureau—a pioneer in drawing
inbound tourists that thoroughly
pursues foreign visitors’ perspectives
Background to the Project
Desire for many people to experience themagnificence of the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage
routes following their designation as a World
Cultural Heritage
Located in the southern part of Wakayama
Prefecture, Tanabe City has a wealth ofregional resources, boasting not only
abundant nature featuring the ocean,mountains, rivers, and hot springs, but alsoancient history and culture represented by theKumano Kodo pilgrimage routes and Kumano
Hongu Taisha Grand Shrine, which aredesignated as World Cultural Heritage sites
under the collective title “Sacred Sites andPilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range”.
Following Kumano Kodo’s World Heritage
designation in 2004 and a large-scale mergerof local municipalities the following year, theTanabe City Kumano Tourism Bureau— acollaborative
public-private
regionalorganisation
forpromoting
regional
development through tourism centered on
the World Heritage Kumano Kodo—waslaunched in 2006.
Asa
public-private
collaborative
organisation, the Bureau has consistently
carried out its activities through role-sharing,with the private sector taking the lead intourism promotion and government agencies
preparing and maintaining physical resources
and infrastructure.

Tanabe City,
Wakayama Prefecture

Project Aims
Endeavour to sustainably invigorate thelocal region by balancing the preservation of
Kumano Kodo’s nature and culture withtourism.
Project Overview
Simultaneously performing the role of acollaborative
public-private
tourism
promotion organisation and developing
travel industries targeting FIT
In order to establish the region’s position asa sustainable tourism area, the Bureau
disseminates information that foreign visitors
find to be important and improves theenvironment for hosting tourists fromoverseas, endeavouring to attract visitors
targeting mainly FIT (Free IndependentTravelers) from Europe, America, and Australia.
In 2010 the Bureau attained corporate
status and created “Kumano Travel”, acommunity-based tourism industry. As anintermediary support organisation connecting
foreign travelers and the local community, theBureau is undertaking regional development
through tourism by planning and selling stayprograms in cooperation with the localcommunity.

1and guidebooks introducing local culture
were compiled.
3. Presenting “pilgrimage culture”, withwhich the West is deeply familiar, to theworld・In 2008, the Bureau concluded a “JointPromotion Agreement” with Spain’s“Camino de Santiago” (“Way of St.
James”) pilgrimage routes, which havealso been designated as World Cultural
Heritage, and began disseminating
information to the world.
・In 2015 the Bureau began “Dual Pilgrim
Credential” activities, with 3,400 people
from 57 countries completing bothpilgrimages by October 2020.

Kumano Kodo
Features and Innovations
By sharing its basic stance regardingtourism with local business operators andresidents,andthoroughly
pursuing
hospitality from the perspective of theforeign visitors who are the target of its
activities, the Bureau has become afrontrunner representative of Japan incommunity-based
tourism,
realisingdramatic increases in attracting inboundtourists.
1. Basic stance on tourism shared within
the region(1) “Roots” over “Boom”(2)“Maintenance/preservation”
over“rampant development”(3) “Independents” over “masses”(4) “Low impact” rather than “seekingimpact”

4. Frontrunner in generating demand fromindependent travelers from Europe,
America, and Australia
The Bureau has been quick to identify andfocus on the potential of community-based
tourism that targets independent travelers
from the West, and in 2010 established“Kumano Travel”, a travel agency providing
online booking services.
“Kumano Travel” sales increased 13-foldover an 8-year period, from 40 million yen in2011 to 521 million yen in 2019, contributing
tremendously to the invigoration of theregional economy and leading to Kumano

2. Constructing inbound strategies based
onthoroughforeignvisitors’
perspectives・Thoroughly pursued the thinking that “thesensibilities of foreign visitors need to beconsidered in order to attract foreign
visitors to the region”.
・Native English-speaking staff were hiredsince the establishment of the Bureau;signs/labels are standardised andinformation is disseminated in multiplelanguages; signboards were prepared,2receiving praise as being a pioneer in Japanesecommunity-based tourism in both name andreality.

Future Developments
In order to attract new and repeater
tourists, the third and fourth pilgrimage
routes will be made into tourism content
Kumano Kodo has several pilgrimage routes,
but efforts to attract tourists are currently
centered on two routes: the Nakahechi routeand the Kohechi route. Moving forward, theBureau intends to add the “Iseji route” and“Ohechi route” into the current tourism
content, thereby further enhancing the appealof the Kumano Kodo, securing repeater
tourists and increasing visitors’ length of stayin the region by generating demand for theseroutes.

Foreign travelers walking the Kumano Kodo
Issues, Problems, and Responses
1. Insufficient accommodation facilitiesPrecisely because of the “pilgrimage” styleof travel being promoted, securingaccommodation in areas with few
accommodation facilities is an issue. Efforts
are needed to utilise vacant houses andincrease the number of small-scale familyoperated accommodation facilities, withoutharming the surrounding scenery.
2. Maintaining the regional landscape
Along the Kodo (pilgrimage routes) there
are an increasing number of areas ofabandoned farmland resulting from anincrease in marginal settlements in theregion caused by the declining birthrate andaging of society. Maintaining the scenery insuch areas is difficult.
However, in recent years there have been
movements by private companies and others
to clean, repair, maintain, and preserve theKumano Kodo. Accordingly, the Bureau
intends to expand these activities while
simultaneously promoting actions that boost
the momentum for them to be supported by
the entire community.

Reference URLs
http://www.tb-kumano.jp(Tanabe City Kumano Tourism Bureau website(available in Japanese; multilingual translation
services provided))https://dual-pilgrim.spiritualpilgrimages.com/(Dual Pilgrims (Pilgrims who have walked boththe “Kumano Kodo” and “Camino de Santiago”(“Way of St. James”) pilgrimage routes))
Contact
Division in charge: Tanabe City Kumano
Tourism Bureau
Phone: +81-0739-26-9025
E-mail: info@tb-kumano.jp
Key Terms◆Community-based tourism
A style of travel whereby communities
welcoming travelers provide the travelers withtravel products and experiential programs thatare based on local tourisms resources (e.g.:“Green Tourism” providing farm workexperiences)◆Dual Pilgrim Credential
3This is a “passport for pilgrims” who areundertaking both the “Kumano Kodo” and“Camino de Santiago” (“Way of St. James”)
pilgrimages.
Pilgrims who complete both pilgrimages
receive an official Dual Pilgrim Credential(completion certificate) and commemorative
gift, and their names are registered on the“Dual Pilgrim website”.

4