This is the ppt slides presented at the symposium held in Yamaguchi Prefecture, where is famous as the largest karst field in Japan, described the overview of the results came from my questionnaire survey that focused on tourism and environmental understandings over Akiyoshi-do limestone show cave.

1. Tourism Satisfaction and
Environmental Awareness of
Akiyoshi-do Cave Tourists
Erie K. ANDO (安藤奏音)
9th March, 2018
REPORT

2. INTRODUCTION
More than 120 of show caves exist in Japan.
Three Great Show Caves: Akiyoshi-do Cave
(Yamaguchi pref.), Ryuga-do Cave (Kochi pref.),
Ryusen-do Cave (Iwate pref.)
Akiyoshi-dai has 3 famous show caves.
Akiyoshi-do Cave, Taisho-do Cave, Kagekiyo-do Cave

3. RESEARCH PLACE
Akiyoshi-do Cave
• Mine-city, Yamaguchi pref.
• National Park & National Geopark
• Opened to public in 1909
• Approx. 500,000 visitors/year

4. Why is Akiyoshi-do Cave important?
Tourists Researchers Cavers
Enjoy, refresh,
feel unusual
Discover new
facts, problem
solutions
Exploration,
find a new
chamber
 Attracts tourists and provide social unity and financial
merits to local people.
 Provide unique field to researchers and explorers, and
their discoveries contribute to enhance academic value.
Financial resource,
community
encouragement
Local people

5. PROBLEM INSTITUTION
No questionnaire survey has performed
for Akiyoshi-do Cave since it was opened
to public.

6. Are tourists satisfied with current
Akiyoshi-do Cave tourism?
How far do they care about
the natural environment of
the cave?
Who are they?ALL UNKNOWN

7. OBJECTIVE
To reveal what contributes to tourism
satisfaction and its degree and the
level of environmental awareness of
Akiyoshi-do Cave tourists

8. 1. Zoning
STUDY METHOD
Questionnaire survey
 Volume: 4pages of A4
 Contents: tourism value,
environmental awareness, and
attribution sections
 Target: Akiyoshi-do Cave tourists
 Period: 28th September 2017 to 10th
January 2018
 Collection methods: online sheet, face
to face, collection boxes placed at
Karstar, museum, main entrance, ELV
entrance, Kurotani entrance

9. RESULTS
Among total of 170 questionnaires distributed, 155
questionnaires were used for the further data analysis.
Face to face
Online
Karstar
Museum
Main entrance
ELV entrance
Kurotani entrance
105
15
3
1
1
15
15

10. Purpose of Visit
33 33
25
28 29
15
81
7
19
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
numberofanswers

11. Satisfaction
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
very dissatisfied dissatisfied neither satisfied very satisfied
landscape restaurants shops fees Cave facility

12. Tourist Loyalty
Strongly
disagree
DisagreeNeitherAgreeStrongly
agree
satisfied over all?
Are you…
introducing this
place to your
close people?
up to visit here
again within 1 year?
1.3%
2.0%
12.0%
54.0
%
30.7%
1.3%
1.3%
17.9%
48.3
%
31.1
%
4.7%
18.0
%
37.3
%
25.3%
14.7%

13. Tour Request
4
5
Caving tour
Geomorphology-centered tour
Biology-centered tour
Joint tour, cave and plateau
Cave and human history tour
76 votes
61 votes
58 votes
46 votes
24 votes

14. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Semantic Differential
Comfortable
Cheerful
Artificial
Colorful
Relief
Clean
Beautiful
Open
Calm
Common
Uncomfortable
Gloomy
Natural
Simple
Scared
Unclean
Ugly
Close
Furious
Unusual

15. Environmental Understandings
6.4%
14.2
%
27.7
%
35.5
%
16.3
%
1.4%
23.4
%
36.2
%
27.0
%
12.1%
3.5%
12.7%
23.2%
44.4%
16.2%
Strongly
disagree
DisagreeNeitherAgreeStrongly
agree
Akiyoshi-do Cave is
affected by
environmental changes
on the surface
Tourism can alter the
natural environment
of the cave
The natural
environment of
Akiyoshi-do Cave is
well-preserved

16. Environmental Understandings
NG behavior screening
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
numberoftourists
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
numberoftourists
Be careful!
NG
NG
NG
NG
NG

17. Needs for Environmental Protection
Tourists chose top 3 hoping installation
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
votes
Limited entrance
when crowded
etc.

18. Tourists’ Attribution
Gender
10's, 8.3%
20's,
36.8%
30's, 12.5%
40's, 13.2%
50's, 18.8%
60's, 7.6% 70's and over, 2.8%
Female,
52.8%
Male,
46.5%
Others,
1.4%
Mine city,
7.1%
Yamaguchi
pref., 22.0%
other pref., 70.9%
oversea, 0
1,
47.2
%
2,
19.7
%
3,
7.7%
4, 2.8%
5≦, 22.5%
day
trip,
62.4%
stay at a hotel,
35.5%
spend
night
in a
car,
2.1%
alone,
9.4%
friend,
23.7%
family
,
42.4%
lover, 7.2%
school
/busin
ess
group,
17.3%
Age Residential area
Number of visits Staying time Companion

19. DISCUSSION Cluster analysis
Group 1 Group 2 Group 3
 Family trip
 Stay at a hotel
 Sight seeing
 School or business trip
 Watch cave animals
 Often listen to guides
 Day trip
 Want to be relaxed,
forget daily life
The results proved, Akiyoshi-do Cave has 3 dimensions.
sight seeing spot geo-site for education health resort

20. DISCUSSION Correlation coefficients
Total satisfaction Recommendation to others Re-visit
Tourist Loyalty
Landscape and
atmosphere of
the cave
0.64 0.62
Feeling of
the nature
0.43
Quality of
souvenir
Hospitality
of staffs
0.44 0.40

21. DISCUSSION
Obstacles for tourist loyalty
“Ruined shops have not removed yet and that makes me feel scared.”
Free writings
1. Shopping street
“Shop staffs beckoned me persistently. It was so annoying.”
2. Tourist trail
“Wet and narrow. Dangerous to pass other tourists”
“Greens under the lights seemed to be damaging the beautiful landscape.”

22. DISCUSSION
NG behavior screening of the tourists showed,
45.8 %
touched stalactite
27.1 %
touched water
12.2 %
eat or drink in cave
All harmful for the cave environment.
Screening

23. The natural environment of a cave experiences
irreversible alteration as the number of visitors
increases if not appropriate conservation is applied.
In general,
e.g.
Touching stalactites or water, eating, drinking, walking
outside of the tourist trail can result in…
Alteration of water quality, ecosystem,
air circulation, and landscape.

24. Example of human impact study
Ando et al. (2017)
More human indicating bacteria at the pools nearby
the tourist trail than the pools far from there.
Difference in microbial community structure was
suggested as the result of colony cultivation.
He and his collaborators targeted microbes
because they are sensitive to environmental
changes in order to detect human impacts
induced by cave tourists.

25. DISCUSSION
Environmental
understanding
 51.8 % of the tourists agreed
“Akiyoshi-do Cave is affected by environmental changes on the
surface”
 39.1 % of the tourists agreed
“Tourism can alter the natural environment of the cave”
 60.6 % of the tourists agreed
“The natural environment of Akiyoshi-do Cave is well-preserved”
TRUE
TRUE
FALSE
Environmental introduction during their visit could enhance
their awareness and thus result in better cave protection.

26. CONCLUSION
 Tourists were satisfied with the current cave tourism, but
there remains some obstacles for improving their loyalty.
 Environmental awareness of the tourists was not so high,
but not so low. Needs further environmental education to
prevent NG behaviors of tourists.
 This survey was the 1st act to reveal tourism satisfaction,
environmental awareness, and the attribution of
Akiyoshi-do Cave tourists. More critical questions and
further analyses are required.

27. BEST SHOW CAVE MANAGEMENT
Studies of human impacts
Air Microbes Visitor pollutants Water Soil minerals etc.
YOUR COOPERATION

28. 26.1% 38.7% 19.7% 11.3% 4.2%
Ideal “Natural Environment”
Untouched nature Well-controlled nature

29. Resource of Akiyoshi information
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45

30. Environmental Education Experience
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
experienced
environmental
education in
elementaly and
middle school
took
environmental
classes at
university
major in
environmental
subjects at
graduate
school
never
experienced
environmental
education
joined
environmental
event
held
environmental
event
numberoftourist