World Heritage Inscription and Tourist Arrivals in Japan

This study examines the impact of World Heritage inscriptions on tourist arrivals to assess their role in stimulating local economies and promoting sustainable tourism. Statistical data covering the period from 1980 to 2023 were collected for 15 World Heritage sites in Japan. The analysis employed a 20-year observation window for each site, considering a period that extended 10 years prior to and 10 years after their sites’ inscriptions. The explanatory variables included tourism budget, per capita income, proportion of population aged 65 years old and over, average household size, and a dummy variable indicating the post-inscription period. The estimation results are summarized as follows. First, the relationship between tourist arrivals and tourism budget was significantly positive in fixed effect model by reflecting the characteristics of each region. Second, prefectural per capita income in fixed effect model and demographic variables - including total population, population aged 65 years and over, and household size - did not show statistically significant effects. However, per capita income in pooled OLS is positively estimated in significance, inferring that the income is an important element for the whole country whereas it is not for individual regions. Third, the dummy variable for inscription status demonstrated a statistically insignificant correlation with estimations that did not assume heteroscedasticity. These findings suggest that increasing tourism-related investment in strategic initiatives, such as events and urban revitalization projects, may be more effective in enhancing tourist arrivals than relying solely on World Heritage inscriptions.