What Is Necessary to Enhance Long-Stay Demand in Spa Health Resort？ ～From Considerations Based on Field Work～ / 日本温泉気候物理医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

  The Ministry of the Environment is promoting an Onsen Stay policy, is suggesting long stays at spa health resorts and is working on activation in a spa from 2017. What kind of program can be carried out to accept long stay guests at the spa which fills the capacity of the health resort? Programs targeted for Gero Spa, the Osaka hot spring village (Yuya Spa, Shimojima Spa and Nigorigo Spa), Yuwaku Spa, the Hakusan hot spring village (Tedori Spa, new Iwama Spa, Ichirino Spa and Chugu Spa) and Yunokuchi Spa were investigated in this survey.  The necessity of creating a space of relaxation suitable for a stay was shown to add new space value and experience value when the area resources including the ambient surroundings in a spa were utilized for long stays in a thesis of Shimomura, who studied the spatial form of the spa and the spatial structure, and in an Onsen Stay promotion plan of the Ministry of the Environment.  In the above-named 10 spas the extent to which space value and experience value was added was investigated by listening to the guests concerned and by a local inspection of whether such a program was carried out. Since the program’s implementation in Gero Spa, the Osaka hot spring village and Ichirino Spa, as a result, I found that the long-stay program was feasible. But I also found that there are almost no long-stay guests who utilized the program because needs weren’t taken into consideration in the utilization. In high plains areas in the mountains, I also found that eco-tourism is considered as a stay plan and that town walks utilizing cultural facilities in downtown, walks and day trips to the surrounding scenic and recreation spots are considered as a stay plan in the newly-formed spa towns.  I suggest that an investigation in spas where long-stay programs have been put into effect is the next necessary step in this research.