Estimation of the Economic Ripple Effects and Construction of Environment and Resource Accounting in Case of Yakushima Island

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This research clarified structure of industries in Yakushima Island. In particular tourism was in main focus of this analysis. A questionnaire survey was conducted to estimate tourism statistics in Yakushima. It was found that the number of tourists to Yakushima should be around 200 thousand a year, and it was clear that Kagoshima prefectural office underestimated the size of tourists to Yakushima. Also it should be noted the number of tourists who use packages tours has been dramatically rising. Although increased number of tourists surely contribute to the development of local economy, there is a possibility that overuse of mountainous areas may cause depletion of environmental assets in the near future. Economic impacts of ecotourism to the local society were investigated from an aspect of the demand side as well as from that of supply side. The number of tourists who participated in the ecotourism amounted to ]9.21% out of all tourists to Yakushima. Moreover, the percentage of tourists during summer who participated in the ecotourism rose from 12% in 1997. and in 30% in 2002. Also the number of local residents who were engaged in the ecotourism in 2002 was about three times as much as in 1997. In spite of the development off tourism industries, other industry such as agriculture, fisheries, and, construction industries have confronted economic recession. In particular, more than 12 companies in the construction sector were bankrupted within the latest 5 years because of shrinking public service. Through the input-output analysis, the power of job-creation was estimated. Consequently, the construction industries had the same job-creation power as tourism industries.