Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2014

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Poster

Symbol O (Public) » Public

[O-06_30PO1] Geoparks in Japan

Wed. Apr 30, 2014 6:15 PM - 7:30 PM Poster (3F)

Convener:*Watanabe Mahito(Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Tatsuya Sumita(The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST))

6:15 PM - 7:30 PM

[O06-P17] Aso Geopark Infrastructure Development; International Students Monitoring Tour

*Akira KATAYAMA1, Akinobu ISHIMATSU1, Mariko YAMAUCHI1 (1.Aso Geopark Promotion Council)

Keywords:Aso, geopark, monitor

Aso Geopark has been applied for joining the Global Geopark Network (GGN) in December 2013.The Promotion Council has been maintaining both the hard and soft elements of the park infrastructure for not only Japanese tourists but also visitors from abroad as we expect more visitors after becoming the GGN member. In November 2013, international university students in the Tokyo area, who are from Canada, UK, Czech Republic, Korea, China and Taiwan, are interested in Aso region, carried out 3days monitoring tours to evaluate Aso Geopark's foundations to meet visitor satisfaction. The group researched geological sites, public transport systems, the Geopark's base facilities, guiding leaflets and foreign language service at tourists' information and accommodations. During the tour, related people from municipalities, accommodation unions and the council staff gathered together with students and discuss about findings which students discover as native tourists.From the monitoring tour, overall performance includes guide's skill, numbers of signboards and omotenashi at accommodations are relatively highly satisfied. However, explanations in multilingual signboards at public transport stations and base facilities and also automatically translation service on the geopark official website were pointed out and need of immediate development.Even though there are many experiment activities in Aso Geoaprk, most of students suggested having more kindly information service from an entrance to a goal for main tourist's route to look around Aso region with stress free. Explanations for Japanese culture such as use of Ryokan and Onsen, hot spas are essential.This monitoring tour has been programed to have sustainable relationship between the council staff and students as an adviser for future infrastructure developments. Only long-term stay students were selected and asked to check the geopark's official website both before and after the monitoring tour.The promotion council will boost our infrastructures from this research and continue to have more monitoring activities.