Factors contributing to tourism demand at major Japanese hot springs

PLoS One. 2022 Sep 15;17(9):e0274681. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274681. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Hot springs are a major tourism resource in nature-based tourism, and the hot springs market is one of the biggest sectors in wellness tourism markets. In the present study, we examine factors contributing to tourism demand for major hot spring resorts in Japan using ordinary least squares regression models and generalized linear mixed models, and compare the estimation results. The results show that significant factors in most of our models are quality of accommodations and the degree of dependence on inbound demand. Furthermore, the number of non-Japanese languages supported on websites of hot spring resorts has a significant impact on inbound demand. Since the results of the present study cover more than 80 hot spring sites, the results highlight common important factors for hot spring resorts. Such widely applicable factors have been missing in previous studies, and the present study fills this research gap.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Hot Springs*
  • Japan
  • Tourism

Grants and funding

JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP 19K20571, JP20H04436, and JP20K20080 JAPAN Society for the Promotion of Science https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/index.html.