collected thousands of such colorful lighters, the residents made an art work using the lighters. Tourists began to visit the town to see the "lighter" art; they also watch whales and buy shallots.
Another town, Uchiko Town in Ehime Prefecture, had an 80-year old theater, which was used as an office of the agricultural cooperative association until 20 years ago. Owing to its high ceiling, it was very cold inside during winter. Residents therefore decided to demolish the building. One or two wise residents, however, proposed restoring the building as a theater.
Instead of constructing a new theater by spending some billion yen, the town remodeled the old theater at some ten million yen, and asked a celebrated Kabuki actor to perform there. The actor came to like the theater very much; since the stage was very close to the seats, the more enthusiastic he became, the more the spectators enjoyed it. He found that he enjoyed acting more in that theater than in its larger counterparts in Tokyo.
As Mr. Kanzaki stated earlier, the actor and the local people began to build good relations, in which both parties benefitted from each other. The town began to attract a band of tourists from Tokyo, comprising Kabuki fans. It is not an exaggeration. A young woman of Uchiko said that until she saw the success of the theater, she had believed that everything of value could only be found outside her town: in Tokyo, Paris, and New York, for instance.
To sum up today's discussion: any community, by using wisdom, can find something valuable with which it can attract tourists. Of course, if a community has no wise or hard-working people, it cannot be helped. In this world, everything does not always go well.
Today, we are very honored to have overseas guests. The delegate of Indonesia has left the venue on important business, but we still have Dr. Choi from the Korea Tourism Research Institute and Ms. Lazo from the Department of Tourism, the Republic of the Philippines. Dr. Choi and Ms. Lazo, would you please give us comments, within three to five minutes, regarding the panelists' views? After your comments, the panelists will resume discussion. Dr. Choi, would you like to start?
Choi: I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for inviting me to this Symposium. First of all, I would like to emphasize that tourism promotion is very complicated by nature, because it involves various aspects: education, environmental preservation, participation of local residents, construction of such facilities as hotels and restaurants, interpreter and guide services, and so on.
Accordingly, I believe that we must promote tourism step by step, based on a long-term perspective. Owing to their complex nature, tourism and cultural promotion projects require a long span, perhaps over ten years; if we hurry and try to achieve objectives in two, three, or even five years, we are unlikely to succeed. In each local community, residents should develop master plans autonomously. At the same time, linkage with other localities and nationwide general tourism promotion programs must also be emphasized.
Takada: Thank you, Dr. Choi. I was particularly impressed by your comment that we must have a very long-term perspective for promoting tourism. We Japanese tend to hurry, and think that we must recover our investment within a short period. However, it indeed takes a long time for local residents to rediscover valuable qualities of the locality and attract tourists using such qualities.
From the Philippines, we have Madam Lazo. Would you like to say something please.
Lazo: Thank you. From my own experience, and also from this panel discussion, I strongly feel the importance of domestic tourism. I would also like to emphasize the importance of making local communities aware of the benefits of tourism.
Since tourism is multidisciplinary in nature, it involves all aspects of a society, including political aspects. I understand that there are many participants here from prefectural and other local governments; they should realize that, as policy makers, they can control the benefits of tourism. In addition, I cannot but emphasize the importance of environmental preservation.
Next, I would like to emphasize the importance of incorporating tourism in education. In the Philippines, as part of governmental programs led by the President, we are providing young people with opportunities to travel inside the country. For instance, this month, we are going to have summer camps in regions that require development. On such occasions, we invite marginalized young people, physically challenged people, and other disabled young people. During summer camps in under-developed regions, we consider how to develop the region and how to promote tourism nationwide. In this way, such camps offer a golden opportunity to gather information from participants and develop tourism nationwide. By listening to young participants and grassroots group members, we can develop tourism promotion plans, which will be reflected in our economic and national development plans.
Next, I would also like to emphasize the importance of cultural preservation. In the Philippines, we have already begun restoration and preservation work, with the assistance of overseas experts.
Finally, I would like to emphasize that whenever we invest in activities like this, we should have a long-term perspective, with emphasis on sustainable development. In other words, we must always remember that whatever we do now could influence posterity. We must leave
