Abstract
This report outlines the birth of Ecotourism in Ogasawara, with a particular focus on the development of nature guide training programs at this location. The information in this report is derived primarily from a series of documents obtained from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) office in Ogasawara, the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association (OWA), and from the Hahajima Tourist Association (HTA). These documents were translated and a content analysis performed. This information was supplemented by a series of semi-structured, taped interviews with the persons in charge of nature guide training at each of these organizations: the TMG (Kobayashi, March 2003), the OWA (Mori, March 2003), and the HTA (Sakairi, March 2003; Hiraga, March 2003). The information reported in this paper suggests that Ogasawara is still in the early stages of ecotourism and guiding development at this up-and-coming ecotourism destination.
Keywords: ecotourism, guide training, development, Ogasawara |
