Hidden treasure in Japan~ How can we develop sustainable tourism?

Last week I visited Iida city, which is located in South Nagano area in Japan. This city is a little bit isolated area, because it takes 3 hours by bus from the nearest express station to go to the city. However, there are beautiful nature, wonderful traditional industries, delicious and fresh foods, and warm people. I participated in a summer school in this city, and we discussed about how we can develop this city in the future. In fact, in 2028, this city will be connected to Tokyo directly by a new express line. Which means, in 10 years, this city will appreciate vast increase in tourist.

The most difficult problem of development in this city as a sightseeing spot is the balance of nature preservation and city development. This city's biggest resource is beautiful nature, but if you try to develop transportations and facilities for tourists, you may destroy the nature and lose its attractiveness.

During this discussion, I found that the development of ecotourism in Costa Rica can be a hint to think about this problem. Costa Rica had developed sustainable tourism, and ecotourism is the main industry in this country. I learned this fact in a movie titled "Home" at first time. Costa Rica is promoting ecotourism nationally, and a quarter of this country is national park.

Although Costa Rica's success in ecotourism industry is wonderful, I found one difficult point of ecotourism promotion when I talked with local people in Iida city. A citizen said that it is difficult to earn money by ecotourism, because tourists don?t have to pay to see the nature.

So, how can we earn money by ecotourism? In my opinion, summer schools and tours are very good ways to earn money by ecotourism. There is no counterpart in this area, so you can start ecotourism business in proper price (which means you don't have to make it too cheap).

Education or training for guides who have good knowledge about local nature, ecosystem, and traditional culture can help to make tours and summer schools more interesting and meaningful. If you know any other ideas to succeed in ecotourism promotion, please write below! :)