[H-CG22] International meeting of landscape appreciation and recreational evaluation

[HCG22-06] A Study on the Use of Campsites in "Japan’s Forests with Breathtaking Views"

*Kimisato ODA¹ (1.Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute)

Keywords:recreation forests, camp sites, Instagram

The Forestry Agency has designated national forests with excellent natural scenery that are expected to be used for forest bathing and nature observation as "recreational forests," and is promoting efforts to promote the use of these forests by the public. Of the 620 recreational forests in Japan, 93 that are expected to be used for tourism have been selected as "Japan’s Forests with Breathtaking Views", and priority efforts are being made to develop facilities and promote their use. In addition, the popularity of covid-19 has changed the format of recreational activities, and outdoor activities and recreation for small groups have become the focus of attention. Camping, in particular, is becoming more and more of a topic of conversation on social networking sites, with "solo camping" selected as one of the top 10 buzzwords for 2020 in Japan. Thus, facilities need to be properly maintained to meet the increasing demand, and to do so, it is important to understand the usage conditions. However, it is difficult to grasp the number of users of the entire recreational forest, which has multiple routes in and out and a vast area, and no clear method has been established. Therefore, in this study, in order to find a means of understanding the use of recreational forests by the public, we targeted campsites, which are stay-type recreational facilities. To select the target campsites, we first used the website of the Forestry Agency's "Japan’s Forests with Breathtaking Views" and selected 41 forests under the "Campsites and / or cabins" tab. Of these, 29 forests had campsites within and in close proximity to the forest, and 30 campsites were included in the list. To assess the use of each campsite, we collected the number of word-of-mouth posts and average score on Google Maps as of February 15, 2022, and the number of posts on Instagram under the hashtags "name of campsite" and "name of recreational forest".In the Instagram hashtag, the number of posts for the "name of the recreational forest" where the campsite is located was significantly lower than the number of posts for the "name of the campsite". In particular, 18 recreational forests, the majority of the total, posted zero hashtags. On the other hand, hashtag posts were confirmed for all "name of the campsite," suggesting that it is effective to target stay-type facilities in order to understand the usage status even on a posting-type web service. In addition, there was no significant difference in the evaluation of the usage status seen from the posting-type web service in terms of accessibility (distance from the main station, whether it is possible to reach by public transportation only, etc.), which suggests the need for further study on the related facilities and services owned by campgrounds.