Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
This is a peer reviewed contribution. Received: 19 Nov 2006 Revised: 10 Dec 2006 Accepted: 15 Dec 2006 © Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences ISSN 1449-7336 HeritageFutures™ International, PO Box 3440, Albury NSW 2640, Australia 388 Persistent identifier: http://www.nla.gov.au/nla.arc-65664
MICRONESIAN
JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Vol. 5, nº 1/2 Combined Issue November 2006
THE ATTITUDES OF JAPANESE TOURISTS TOWARDS CULTURAL HERITAGE ATTRACTIONS IN THE CNMI
Elizabeth Sayers National Parks Association of Queensland Inc
Dirk HR Spennemann Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University
Eco-tourism and cultural tourism is being regarded as a major strategy to open up new tourism markets for some Micronesian states. With Japanese visitors making up the single largest contingent of tourists to Micronesia, there is a need to examine their attitudes towards the cultural and historical elements of the islands. Are they in fact interested in such attributes and what are their expectations for a visit? This paper examines the attitudes and expectations of a co-hort of Japanese tourists to the CNMI and outlines the challenge faced by the cultural heritage and tourism management authorities. Tourism has been regarded as the panacea to cure the economic troubles of the Pacific Island communities, particularly of the Pacific microstates. Mass tourism, particularly from Japan, has long reached Guam (Page & Lawton 1996; Iversen 1997), but also, more recently, Saipan and Palau (Page & Lawton 1996). The Japanese tourist market is one of the largest in contemporary Micronesia. For example, in 2005 (2004) Guam hosted 1,165,149 (1,120,676) visitors, of which 80.6% (80.9%) were Japanese. In the same period, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) hosted 443,812 (529,557) visi-tors of which 63.2% (71.1%) were Japanese. Although Palau is keenly developing its tour-ism industry, it targets different markets. In 2005 (2004) Palau received 86,120 (94,894) visitors, of which only 31% (25.5%) were Japa-
nese (Data: Guam Visitors Bureau; Marianas Visitors Authority; Palau Visitor Authority).
Given the size of the market on the one hand, and the desire of the regional tourism development agencies to develop cultural and eco-tourism opportunities (Heather et al 2000; Look & Spennemann 2000; Spennemann et al 2001) it is surprising that information on the attitudes of Japanese tourists towards heritage attractions in Micronesia is virtually absent.
There is an overall paucity of research on cultural heritage travel of the Japanese tourist market. A study of Japanese tourism to the United Kingdom identified culture, language and novelty as important motivations (Gilbert & Terrata 2001), while a study of Japanese tourism to the Gold Coast (Australia) and Hawai’i revealed that among twenty travel vari-ables the motivation ‘visiting historic sites/
Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI 389
museums’ ranked lowest for the Gold Coast and fourth lowest for Hawai’i. The ability to ‘experience a different culture and customs’ and the ability to ‘experience different food and drink’ ranked in the lower half of variables for the Gold Coast (ranks 7 & 10), and clus-tered in the exact middle for Hawai’i (ranks 10-11) (Reisinger and Turner 2000).
Elsewhere the authors have discussed the awareness and travel motivations of Japanese tourists to the CNMI (Sayers & Spennemann 2006a). That study, which draws on the same sample of visitors as the present paper, con-firmed the findings of Reisinger and Turner (2000) for the Marianas setting.
THE SAMPLE The fieldwork period took place on Saipan (CNMI) over a four-week period during the months of July and August 2001. A structured questionnaire comprising pre-coded and open-ended questions was administered to departing visitors in the secure departure area of Saipan International Airport. Passengers sampled in this area had passed immigration and security checks and were waiting for their flight to commence boarding.1 The questionnaire was available in both English and Japanese.
Table 1. Age/gender data of the Japanese sample population compared to the MVA arrival data
Fieldwork MVA Arrival Data Age M F Age M F 18-25 9.4 25.1 18-24 6.1 15.4 26-30 16.6 21.7 25-29 15.9 22.2 31-40 40.4 36.6 30-39 33.6 32.0 41-50 23.8 12.6 40-49 25.3 17.2 51-60 6.3 3.1 50-59 12.5 7.5 60+ 3.4 0.9 60+ 6.7 5.8 N 319 350 N 23,893 26,021
In total 830 questionnaires were collected during the fieldwork period. 699 (84.2%) of the respondents provided their home country de-tails, 705 (84.9%) provided gender details, 693 (83.4%) indicated their age category. Of the 699 respondents who provided their home country details, an overwhelming 671 (95.9%) stated that their home country was Japan.
Table 1 sets out total sample population by age and gender compared to the MVA arrival data.
Overall, the gender and age profile of the respondent population is similar to the MVA statistics for July and August (Table 1). Some differences can be observed: Younger people were more likely to respond to the question-naire compared to older people, particularly so among 17–25 year old women. Few people over the age of 50 years responded, particularly very few over the age of 60 years. The lack of representation of older people can partly be attributed to the fact that people in this age group were more likely to refuse to participate when they were approached.
ATTITUDINAL ISSUES There were two components of the question-naire that focused on gauging the respondents’ attitude towards certain elements of the culture and nature of the islands’ and their expecta-tions to various aspects of their stay.
Respondents were requested to indicate the level of importance they attributed to a number of elements of the CNMI culture and envi-ronment in general, as well as to specific ele-ments of CNMI’s culture and history.2 A seven-step Likert scale was used ranging from ‘Strongly Agree’ to ‘Strongly Disagree.’ The breakdown in responses is set out in Table 2. The mean responses are plotted in Figure 1 and grouped into four main categories.
In addition, Table 2 also shows the com-bined level of importance (unimportance). The majority of tourists do not attribute a high level of importance to Carolinian culture (40.2%) and history (31.7%) compared to Chamorro culture (46.6%) and especially Chamorro his-tory (59.1%). That differential seems to be borne out of lack of knowledge of the presence of Carolinian community in the CNMI and of the cultural contributions that community has made (see also Sayers & Spennemann 2006c).
The Spanish elements of the islands are also deemed to be of lesser importance, again with a high percentage of respondents drawing on the ‘don't know’ option (Table 2).
390 Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI
7654321
HISTORY
Religious buildings
Spanish artefacts
Colonial history
Buildings of theSpanish Period
History of the islands
Museum
Sugar King Park
Japanese Hospital
Japanese Jail
CULTURE
Chamorro Culture
Chamorro history
Carolinian Culture
Carolinian History
Traditional local food
Island culture/lifestyle
House of Taga
ENVIRONMENT
Endangeredbird species
Natural environment
Micro Beach
WORLD WAR TWO
World War Two relics
Suicide Cliff
Last JapaneseCommand Post
Figure 1. Mean response (with error bars showing 1 Sigma standard deviation) to the importance attributed to each natural and cultural element. Scoring: 1–Very Important; 2–Important; 3–Mildly Important; 4-Don't Know; 5–
Mildly Unimportant; 6–Unimportant; 7–Very Unimportant. (n=829).
Highly valued were World War II relics (76.3%) and especially the natural environment (81%). Among the sites, the Suicide Cliff (70.9%) and the last command post (66.2%) figure prominently, while the Sugar Train me-morial is the least valued (43.6%). It is possible that the high level of importance attributed to the two Japanese WWII sites stems from the fact that both are part of all organised sightsee-ing tours.
The site with the least level of importance attached to it, but also with the highest level of ‘don’t know’ answers, is the latte site ‘House of
Taga’ on Tinian. It is likely that the low re-sponse was generated by the fact that only few visitors would have visited Tinian.3 The differ-ences are readily recognisable when combining the various options into major themes and site types (Table 4). World War II and nature ranked highest, both in the themes and the sites, with local heritage ranking lowest.
When considering the responses in terms of gender, it is worth noting that women attrib-uted a higher level of importance to all catego-ries compared to men (Table 3), but the gender difference was statistically significant only for
Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI 391
the specific sites (with the exception of the Museum and Sugar King Park).4 The highest level of significance in gender difference was observed for the Suicide Cliff. Suicide Cliff is the location where thousands of Japanese sol-diers and families committed suicide when the American troops invaded the island at the end of World War Two (Figure 2). Today there are many memorials located on the cliff top in memory of the deceased. Given that it was mainly women (and their children) who com-mitted suicide there in the face of the advan-cing US troops, it is understandable that (Japanese) women relate more strongly to the site and its meaning.
As it can be expected, some of the themes and sites will relate more to younger people and others more to the older generation, the mean responses were compiled for each age group and then compared against the mean of the overall population (Table 3). Overall, the older generation (51+) was more interested in all of the themes than the younger age groups, with many of the 41-50 years cohort also inter-ested. While the general level of importance was higher, it was not significantly so. The ex-ception were the 60+ old who were less inter-ested in Chamorro cultural aspects, in the case of Chamorro history even significantly so (P=0.016).
Table 2. Level of importance attributed to each element (in %)
Element/Attraction Ver
y Im
port
ant
Impo
rtan
t
Mild
ly I
mpo
rtan
t
Don
’t kn
ow
Mild
ly
Uni
mpo
rtan
t
Uni
mpo
rtan
t
Ver
y U
nim
port
ant
Impo
rtan
t C
ombi
ned
Uni
mpo
rtan
t C
ombi
ned
Chamorro culture 12.5 20.0 15.1 39.3 3.5 6.3 3.3 47.6 13.1 Chamorro history 18.2 25.5 15.4 31.3 2.8 3.7 3.2 59.1 9.7 Carolinian culture 9.8 18.2 12.2 49.0 2.1 5.0 3.6 40.2 10.7 Carolinian history 7.2 15.6 8.9 54.3 3.2 7.0 3.8 31.7 14 Religious buildings 8.1 18.0 15.0 44.5 3.7 7.2 3.6 41.1 14.5 Spanish artefacts 8.6 17.9 14.7 44.4 3.6 7.0 3.7 41.2 14.3 Buildings of Spanish Period 8.6 17.1 15.9 45.0 2.4 7.0 3.9 41.6 13.3 Colonial history 15.8 26.0 18.1 30.5 2.6 4.2 2.8 59.9 9.6 Island culture/lifestyle 16.9 28.0 17.9 28.0 2.1 3.8 3.2 62.8 9.1 History of the islands 22.3 26.5 18.9 24.5 1.2 3.7 2.8 67.7 7.7 World War Two relics 30.3 28.4 17.6 16.1 1.8 3.3 2.5 76.3 7.6 Endangered bird species 33.0 20.5 16.0 24.2 1.5 2.1 2.7 69.5 6.3 The natural environment 43.9 27.1 10.0 15.0 0.8 1.3 1.8 81.0 3.9 Traditional local food 14.1 25.4 21.7 29.1 2.8 4.2 2.6 61.2 9.6
Tourist attractions: Sugar King Park 10.4 17.5 15.7 43.1 4.4 6.2 2.7 43.6 13.3 Museum 12.8 21.8 15.0 39.9 3.2 4.4 2.8 49.6 10.4 Japanese Hospital 13.1 18.4 18.3 39.7 3.5 4.5 2.4 49.8 10.4 Micro Beach 21.5 24.6 15.2 30.9 1.6 3.6 2.5 61.3 7.7 Japanese Jail 14.1 19.5 18.8 37.4 2.8 4.7 2.7 52.4 10.2 Suicide Cliff 30.9 24.8 15.2 21.2 2.5 3.3 2.1 70.9 7.9 Last Japanese Command Post 25.1 24.1 17.0 25.2 2.5 3.6 2.5 66.2 8.6 House of Taga 11.0 15.7 11.1 50.7 3.3 5.0 3.2 37.8 11.5
392
Atti
tude
s of J
apan
ese T
ouris
ts to
ward
s Cul
tura
l Her
itage
Attr
actio
ns in
the C
NM
I
Tabl
e 3. M
ean
resp
onse
s and
stat
istica
lly si
gnifi
cant
dev
iatio
n (T
-Test
) by
age g
roup
and
gen
der.
Si
gnifi
cant
diff
eren
ces a
re sh
own
in it
alics
(P≤
0.05
) and
bol
d (P≤
0.01
).5
A
ge G
roup
Gen
der
T-T
est
18-2
5 26
-30
31-4
0 41
-50
51-6
0 60
+
Tot
al
men
w
omen
18
-25
26-3
0 31
-40
41-5
0 51
-60
60+
G
ende
r C
ham
orro
cul
ture
3.
27
3.52
3.
18
3.08
2.
55
3.17
3.
08
3.32
3.
11
0.
000
C
ham
orro
his
tory
2.
93
3.17
2.
83
2.64
2.
00
2.83
2.
73
2.95
2.
75
0.
000
0.01
6
Car
olin
ian
cultu
re
3.36
3.
60
3.26
3.
06
2.45
2.
89
3.13
3.
60
3.39
0.00
0
0.
026
Car
olin
ian
hist
ory
3.47
3.
90
3.55
3.
24
2.90
3.
06
3.34
3.
31
3.19
0.00
0
Rel
igio
us b
uild
ings
3.
36
3.76
3.
41
3.19
2.
55
2.77
3.
22
3.47
3.
25
0.
000
0.03
1
Sp
anish
art
efac
ts
3.38
3.
65
3.41
3.
13
2.87
2.
80
3.20
3.
43
3.26
0.00
0
Bui
ldin
gs S
pani
sh P
erio
d 3.
22
3.71
3.
39
3.02
2.
65
2.80
3.
15
3.41
3.
18
0.
000
Col
onia
l hist
ory
2.81
3.
01
2.97
2.
62
2.32
2.
57
2.75
2.
89
2.79
0.00
0
Isla
nd c
ultu
re/l
ifest
yle
2.74
3.
07
3.00
2.
60
2.29
2.
60
2.74
2.
99
2.72
0.00
0
His
tory
of t
he is
land
s 2.
56
3.21
2.
70
2.51
2.
03
2.40
2.
58
2.82
2.
57
0.
000
W
orld
War
Tw
o re
lics
2.39
2.
58
2.37
2.
27
1.97
2.
14
2.31
2.
39
2.34
0.00
0
End
ange
red
bird
spe
cies
2.
42
2.68
2.
56
2.18
2.
32
1.89
2.
37
2.48
2.
43
0.
000
Nat
ural
env
ironm
ent
2.14
2.
19
2.01
1.
76
1.74
1.
91
1.96
2.
04
1.99
0.00
0
Tra
ditio
nal l
ocal
food
2.
81
3.10
2.
87
2.88
2.
55
2.49
2.
79
2.95
2.
79
0.
000
T
ouris
t attr
actio
ns
Suga
r K
ing
Park
3.
14
3.58
3.
29
2.99
2.
39
3.00
3.
09
3.31
3.
11
0.
000
0.02
3
M
useu
m
3.05
3.
36
3.12
2.
87
2.39
2.
91
2.93
3.
17
2.96
0.00
0
Japa
nese
Hos
pita
l 2.
93
3.23
3.
14
2.98
2.
39
2.94
2.
93
3.17
2.
93
0.
000
0.05
0
Mic
ro B
each
2.
66
2.95
2.
73
2.55
2.
29
2.54
2.
59
2.81
2.
59
0.
000
Ja
pane
se Ja
il 2.
71
3.22
3.
12
2.95
2.
48
2.71
2.
88
3.13
2.
85
0.
000
0.04
4
0.02
1
Suic
ide
Clif
f 2.
17
2.67
2.
53
2.43
2.
16
2.17
2.
36
2.63
2.
26
0.
000
0.00
2
Last
Jap.
Com
man
d Po
st
2.39
2.
93
2.66
2.
58
2.29
2.
43
2.53
2.
77
2.47
0.00
0
0.
016
Hou
se o
f Tag
a 3.
23
3.55
3.
33
3.10
2.
94
2.71
3.
13
3.42
3.
12
0.
000
0.01
7
N
118
130
259
120
31
35
829
329
375
Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI 393
Figure 2. Suicide Cliff, Saipan. (Photo D. Spenne-mann 2001)
The reverse holds true for those between 26 and 30 years of age, which were all less inter-ested in the themes and sites and very signifi-cantly so (P<0.001).
The combined responses of importance (unimportance) can be grouped into five major themes (Table 4). The World War II period as well as nature stand out as those of interest, with the Spanish period ranking lowest.
Table 4. Combined Importance/Unimportance of ma-jor themes and site types arranged by level of importance
(n=829) Important Unimportant World War II 71.1 8.0 Nature 70.6 6.0 Japanese Period 53.8 10.3 Traditional culture 48.6 11.1 Spanish Period 41.3 14.0
EXPECTATIONS Respondents were given a number of attitudi-nal statements and were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the assertion.6 In order to avoid serial ticking of boxes and to ensure that the results were more likely to pro-vide answers that were reflective of the true
opinions, the statements were worded so that positive and negative assertions were offered. As before, a seven-step Likert scale was used ranging from ‘Strongly Agree’ to ‘Strongly Dis-agree’ (see Table 5 for breakdown).
In addition, Table 5 also shows the com-bined level of ‘agree’ (‘disagree’), omitting the ‘mildly’ and ‘don’t know’ categories. These demonstrate that the visitors were interested in seeing the natural environment while visiting the islands (63.0%). The high level of agree-ment seems to suggest that environment is im-portant to the Japanese visitors. The way the assertion was phrased, however, does not suffi-ciently discriminate between the terrestrial en-vironment as envisaged and the beach and marine environment. Thus it is possible that some respondents misinterpreted the assertion. That is not likely, however, in the case of the assertions that respondents wished to ‘experi-ence different cultures and ways of life’ (47.0%), that ‘cultural lifestyles were important’ to them (42.3%), wished ‘to attend cultural events that [they did] not have access to at home’ (41.8%) and ‘to experience the cultural heritage of the islands’ (41.4%).
Figure 3. The ruins of the Japanese Jail, Middle Road, Saipan. (Photo D. Spennemann 2001)
Plotting the average responses (Figure 4) shows that they fall into four groups. The de-sire to experience the cultural heritage, to see the natural environment and to see things that the tourist normally does not see, had the high-est level of agreement. On the other hand we have the assertions that tourists are only inter-ested in shopping and only wished to see the tourist sites.
394 Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI
Figure 4. Mean responses and standard deviation (1σ) to various attitudinal statements. (Scoring: 1–Strongly Agree; 2– Agree; 3–Mildly Agree; 4-Don't Know; 5–Mildly Disagree; 6– Disagree; 7– Strongly Disagree).
(n=829)
Table 5. Responses to attitudinal statements (in %): SA–Strongly Agree; A–Agree; MA–Mildly Agree; DK-Don't Know; MD–Mildly Disagree; D– Disagree; SD– Strongly Disagree; CA–Combined Agree; CD–
Combined Disagree SA A MA DK MD D SD CA CD
Information on the history of the islands7 7.5 13.3 22.6 33.2 8.6 10.9 3.8 20.8 14.7 I was able to access tour guides8 8.6 19.9 21.5 30.1 5.0 11.2 3.6 28.5 14.8 I was not interested in sites of the Japanese era9 4.8 11.2 12.3 32.7 12.1 18.4 8.5 16.0 26.9 Important to experience different Cultures10 17.6 29.4 18.0 29.2 1.8 3.0 1.1 47.0 4.1 I wished to attend cultural events11 14.3 27.5 19.5 29.4 4.2 3.9 1.2 41.8 5.1 I wished to see the natural environment12 26.6 36.4 14.4 18.9 1.3 1.6 0.7 63.0 2.3 I was interested in relics from World War II13 21.2 25.3 19.7 25.7 3.2 3.5 1.3 46.5 4.8 Endangered bird species did not interest me14 4.8 9.7 10.3 43.1 10.7 13.5 7.9 14.5 21.4 I wished only to see the tourist sites 3.0 5.2 10.0 34.0 14.2 22.7 10.9 8.2 37.6 I did not wish to experience cultural heritage15 2.2 6.2 5.2 32.1 12.7 28.2 13.2 8.4 41.4 I wanted to see things I do not normally see16 21.3 32.8 16 25.3 2.0 2.0 0.5 54.1 2.5 The cultural lifestyles were important to me 17.6 24.7 21.5 29.5 4.1 1.8 0.8 42.3 2.6 I would primarily like to relax & visit the beaches 25.4 28.0 15.5 19.7 4.1 5.0 2.4 53.4 7.4 I was only interested in shopping whilst here 3.0 3.2 9.3 21.2 13.9 28.3 21.1 6.2 49.4 My aim was to learn more about the islands17 18.6 24.9 22.6 26.0 3.4 3.1 1.5 43.5 4.6
Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI 395
Table 6. Mean responses to attitudinal statements by age and gender (Scoring: 1–Strongly Agree; 2– Agree; 3–Mildly Agree; 4-Don't Know; 5–Mildly Disagree; 6– Disagree; 7– Strongly Disagree).
All 1σ 18-25
26-30
31-40
41-50
51-60 60+ Men
Wo-men
Information on the history of the islands 3.70 1.49 3.66 3.74 3.81 3.76 3.52 3.44 3.82 3.64 I was able to access tour guides 3.51 1.54 3.27 3.53 3.64 3.39 3.86 3.24 3.61 3.38 I was not interested in sites of the Japanese era 4.25 1.60 4.39 4.46 4.39 4.08 3.71 3.71 4.29 4.31 It was important to experience different Cultures 2.81 1.33 2.59 2.80 2.97 2.73 2.50 3.00 2.91 2.73 I wished to attend cultural events 2.99 1.37 2.66 2.87 3.08 2.98 3.43 2.93 3.06 2.87 I wished to see the natural environment 2.40 1.25 2.24 2.18 2.50 2.18 2.59 2.94 2.41 2.32 I was interested in relics from World War II 2.81 1.41 2.83 2.89 2.93 2.54 2.48 2.35 2.77 2.81 Endangered bird species did not interest me 4.17 1.50 4.17 4.24 4.41 4.30 3.84 3.63 4.18 4.33 I wished only to see the tourist sites 4.63 1.49 4.62 4.80 4.72 4.73 4.80 4.13 4.69 4.69 I did not wish to experience the cultural heritage 4.86 1.50 5.07 4.96 4.86 4.95 4.93 4.68 4.91 4.95 I wanted to see things that I do not normally see 2.62 1.28 2.40 2.52 2.77 2.43 2.62 2.93 2.69 2.53 The cultural lifestyles were important to me 2.87 1.30 2.79 2.86 2.91 2.71 3.00 3.20 2.90 2.83 I would primarily like to relax and visit the beaches 2.74 1.56 2.99 2.63 2.69 2.54 2.96 2.75 2.79 2.66 I was only interested in shopping whilst here 5.09 1.57 5.29 5.30 5.13 4.82 5.46 5.10 5.12 5.19 My aim was to learn more about the islands 2.86 1.37 2.71 2.80 2.88 2.97 2.93 3.13 2.99 2.73
Table 7. Differences (T-Test) mean responses to attitudinal statements by age and gender 18-25 26-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 60+ Sex
Information on the history of the islands 0.788 0.753 0.324 0.700 0.520 0.321 0.217 I was able to access tour guides 0.131 0.914 0.261 0.445 0.246 0.320 0.062 I was not interested in sites of the Japanese era 0.393 0.186 0.247 0.303 0.086 0.065 0.919 It was important to experience different Cultures 0.107 0.940 0.124 0.524 0.221 0.439 0.071 I wished to attend cultural events 0.020 0.381 0.345 0.974 0.093 0.830 0.078 I wished to see the natural environment 0.214 0.074 0.274 0.077 0.427 0.019 0.277 I was interested in relics from World War II 0.889 0.549 0.247 0.058 0.239 0.065 0.666 Endangered bird species did not interest me 0.999 0.645 0.037 0.425 0.275 0.044 0.183 I wished only to see the tourist sites 0.971 0.227 0.375 0.506 0.567 0.068 0.794 I did not wish to experience the cultural heritage 0.176 0.488 0.992 0.524 0.814 0.513 0.573 I wanted to see things that I do not normally see 0.090 0.423 0.121 0.140 0.974 0.206 0.105 The cultural lifestyles were important to me 0.578 0.983 0.635 0.236 0.600 0.165 0.557 I would primarily like to relax and visit the beaches 0.118 0.469 0.639 0.212 0.491 0.970 0.231 I was only interested in shopping whilst here 0.213 0.176 0.744 0.095 0.214 0.982 0.570 My aim was to learn more about the islands 0.273 0.654 0.808 0.415 0.796 0.281 0.019
Both assertions received a negative re-sponse. The two assertions regarding informa-tion sources form a third group, with a weak to indeterminate agreement of a positive experi-ence. The majority of the assertions fall into the last group, which saw a weak agreement among the respondents (Figure 4).
A breakdown of the average responses by age group (Table 6) show no clear trends be-tween the age groups or between the genders. Statistically significant variations from the mean response were few (Table 7).
CORRELATION BETWEEN INTEREST AND EXPECTATIONS The level of importance that was attributed to each element can be compared with the attitu-dinal assertions using Negative Spearman Cor-relation tests.18 The tests aim to ascertain whether people who deem various elements and attractions of the environment and cultural heritage as important are actually expressing an intent in experiencing them. The elements of each question that were similar were analysed, for example all elements relating to history were grouped together and then compared to
396 Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI
the same category components for the attitudi-nal assertions.
The findings for the Negative Spearman Correlation tests relating to the history of the islands show that the respondents who con-sidered the elements to be important also felt that information was readily available to them regarding the history of the islands. This find-ing is to be expected, as it can be assumed that if something is important to the respondent, then they will seek information about it and therefore find it more readily available as a re-sult (Table 8).
Table 8. Negative Spearman Correlation Test: History Elements compared to the assertion: ‘Information was
readily available to me regarding the history of the islands’
Variables N
Spear-man
Value
Signifi-cance
(p=0.050) Religious buildings 712 -0.260 0.000 Spanish artefacts 713 -0.234 0.000 Colonial history 715 -0.273 0.000 Spanish Buildings 704 -0.213 0.000 History of the islands 718 -0.276 0.000 Museum 716 -0.202 0.000
The Negative Spearman Correlation test for the World War Two elements show similar re-sults as the history elements. Respondents who felt that the relics from World War Two were important also expressed an interest in seeing such relics. This finding is also to be expected and therefore highly significant (Table 9).
Table 9. Negative Spearman Correlation Test: History Elements compared to the assertion: ‘I was interested in
seeing relics from World War Two
Variables N
Spear-man Value
Signifi-cance
(p=0.050) World War Two relics 722 -0.476 0.000 Suicide Cliff 719 -0.420 0.000 Last Jap. Command Post 721 -0.484 0.000
The Negative Spearman Correlation tests for the cultural and natural elements also show results that are to be expected. The respond-ents who considered the cultural and natural elements to be important also expressed an in-terest in experiencing them. Conversely, the
respondents who did not consider the cultural elements to be important expressed a low level of desire to experience the cultural heritage of the islands. The same applies to the correlation between the lack of importance attributed to endangered bird species and the low level of interest in experiencing them.
The Negative Spearman Correlation tests document that the responses by the Japanese tourists are internally consistent.
MESHING WITH LOCAL EXPECTATIONS Finally, let us consider how the observed atti-tudes and interests of the Japanese tourists to Saipan mesh with the expectations held by the local community. We can arrive at this infor-mation through proxy data.
On occasion of the Rota Ecotourism Sym-posium in 2000, the participants (who come from all parts of Micronesia with a greater rep-resentation from the CNMI) were asked to rank their perceptions and values of various eco-tourism opportunities prior to com-mencement of the sessions (Spennemann et al 2001). Overall, the rankings indicated that the indigenous past was seen by far the most im-portant aspect of eco-tourism followed by the local environment. Traditional cultural values are then much less important, while the tan-gible heritage places associated with colonial administration and especially World War II ranked last (Table 10).
In a study of the perceptions of CNMI teachers and students of the cultural heritage of the CNMI, respondents were required to rank from 1 to 12 their preference of the various phases and aspects of CNMI heritage (Table 11). The top two spots are held by traditional knowledge and skills and traditional stories (ranking 3 and 4 among the high school pu-pils). Traditional crafts and traditional songs and dances ranked fourth and fifth (fifth and sixth among high school pupils). Traditional plants and animals ranked seventh in all three samples. The colonial periods occupy the ranks 8 to 12, with the Trust Territory period ranked lowest among all three sample groups.
Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI 397
Table 10. Perceptions of Decisions Makers on Eco-Tourism Opportunities. Mean response (after Spenne-
mann et al. 2001). Opportunity Mean StdDec Archaeological Sites 2.38 2.18 Natural landscapes 3.46 2.50 Local plants 4.29 2.46 Local bird life 4.46 2.84 Traditional Fishing 5.92 1.79 Traditional Skills 6.13 2.33 Spanish & German Places 6.54 2.06 Japanese Places 7.08 2.84 Shipwrecks and diving 7.08 2.39 World War II sites 7.83 2.16
Table 11. Mean average rank (and standard deviation) ascribed to various phases and aspects of CNMI heri-tage. Scoring: Unique rank out of 12 (1 most import-ant, 12 least important) (after Spennemann 2003)
Teachers College
High School
Chamorro sites 4.48±2.72 4.13±3.19 3.09±2.67 Carolinian sites 6.26±2.61 6.19±3.55 4.57±2.57 Spanish period 8.05±2.32 7.92±2.66 7.43±2.83 German period 8.80±2.18 8.97±2.40 8.80±2.73 Japanese period 9.02±1.97 8.26±2.65 8.30±2.39 World War II 8.98±2.71 7.83±3.04 7.61±3.16 TTPI Period 9.90±3.04 9.51±2.86 9.75±2.80 Trad. stories 2.93±2.34 4.03±2.12 5.13±3.04 Tr. knowl. & skills 2.83±2.01 3.44±2.70 4.98±3.12 Traditional crafts 4.88±2.37 4.87±2.74 5.64±2.70 Tr. songs & dances 4.90±2.66 5.33±2.76 5.44±3.35 Tr. plants & animal 6.83±3.10 7.38±3.12 7.00±3.58
n 49 44 66 This grouping into aspects of traditional
heritage and aspects of colonial heritage is very marked across the samples and clearly demon-strates the dichotomy between the two aspects of heritage (Spennemann 2003).
The priorities of the Japanese tourists in fa-voring World War II sites do not mesh well with the expectations and values of the people of the CNMI.
The cultural authorities of the CNMI (His-toric Preservation Office, Museum and the Marianas Visitor Authority) can either accept this discrepancy and continue to provide for the tourists main interests, or they can attempt
to engage the tourists by means of diversifying their cultural offerings. Based on data derived from an analysis of the information sources available to Japanese tourists (Sayers & Spen-nemann 2006c), this should occur both before and after a tourist’s arrival in the CNMI.
CONCLUSIONS Overall it is encouraging that Japanese tourists afford importance to all cultural and historical attributes. What is intriguing and will require further and in-depth analysis is why attributes of the Japanese Mandate administration (such as Sugar King Park, the Japanese jail or the Japanese hospital/museum) rank on the bot-tom tier along with the Spanish colonial heri-tage. Given nationalistic tendencies of the Japanese tourists it could have been posited that that period would have seen a higher level of positive response—the same, or at least similar to that afforded to the World War II attributes.
Going by the responses to the assertions, there is considerable potential for the cultural and historical attributes to become a viable at-traction to the Japanese visitor market. There appears to be substantial attitudinal goodwill by the Japanese towards cultural aspects. But, as could be demonstrated elsewhere, the limited time available to the average Japanese tourist appears to be a major limiting factor (Sayers & Spennemann 2006b). The challenge faced by the cultural heritage and tourism management agencies of the CNMI is to provide a cultural heritage tourism product that meets the expec-tations of the Japanese market while acknow-ledging the time constraints.
From a cultural policy perspective the pri-orities of the Japanese tourists give some rise to concern. They do not mesh well with the expectations and values of the people of the CNMI. That is set to pose some problems if funding requirements for the management of Japanese-era and World War II-era sites fre-quented by or marketed and interpreted to tourists clash with the funding needs of In-digenous heritage sites.
ENDNOTES
398 Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI
1 The amenities that are available to the passen-gers whilst they are waiting to board their flight, include a Duty Free shop and three eating areas, one of which is a VIP area. Data collection en-tailed the distribution of the questionnaires to people in the seating area of the departure lounge of Saipan International Airport. The re-searcher deliberately did not approach people who were sitting in the eating area so as not to disturb them whilst they were eating
2 The question read “Listed below are some ele-ments of the culture of the Mariana Islands. Please indicate how important each option is to you as part of your visit to the islands.’
3. Indeed, only 12% of all respondents indicated that they had been to Tinian on this trip
4 Attention needs to be dawn to the systematic difference in responses to ‘Museum’ and ‘Japa-nese hospital.’ The Museum is located in the building of the former Japanese hospital. Either the respondents were unable to understand this fact, or they in fact differentiated between the building and its contents. This cannot be clari-fied from the data.
5 Statistically significant deviation (T-Test) by age group was measured from the mean of the whole population, while the statistically signifi-cant deviation by gender compared males with female responses.
6. The question read: “Below are a number of statements regarding your time here on the islands and the expectations you had whilst here. Please read each statement carefully and tick one box per line.”
7. The full question read: “Information was readily available to me regarding the history of the islands.”
8. The full question read: “I was able to access tour guides to inform me about the islands.”
9. The full question read: “I was not interested in visitor sites reflecting the Japanese era.”
10. The full question read: “It was important to me to experience different Cultures and ways of life.”
11. The full question read: “Whilst here I wished to attend cultural events that I don’t have access to at home.”
12. The full question read: “I wished to see the natural environment whilst here.”
13. The full question read: “I was interested in see-ing relics from World War Two whilst here.”
14. The full question read: “The endangered bird species of the islands did not interest me.”
15. The full question read: “I did not wish to ex-perience the cultural heritage of the islands.”
16. The full question read: “I wanted to see things while on holidays that I do not normally see.”
17. The full question read: “My aim was to learn more about the islands so that I could feel more at one with the local people.”
18. This test is used to indicate the relationship be-tween two variables. It should be noted that the values of the questionnaire were coded from 1 (strongly agree) through to 7 (strongly disagree) and therefore the lower mean rank shows where the significant difference occurs. As ranks are usually coded the other way around, Negative Spearman Correlation Tests have been used for these variables.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Christiansen, Henrik (1994) The Archaeology of World
War Two in the Marshall Islands. Volume V: Tour-ism. Majuro: Historic Preservation Office.
Gilbert, David and Terrata, Mikiko (2001) An ex-ploratory study of factors of Japanese tourism demand for the UK. International Journal of Con-temporary Hospitality Management vol. 13 nº 2, pp. 70–78
Heather, John E., Look, David W., Parsons, Mit, Spennemann, Dirk H.R. and Webb, Amy (2000) Heritage Eco-Tourism Symposium: the Best of Both Worlds Rota, CNMI 28 February-3 March 2000. Findings and Recommendations. Includ-ing SWOT Analyses of Selected Sites. San Fran-cisco: US National Park Service.
Iversen, Thomas J. (1997) Japanese visitors to Guam: lessons from experience. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing 41-54.
Look, David W. and Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2000) Heritage Eco-Tourism Symposium, Rota, Feb. 28-Mar. 3, 2000. Cultural Resource Manage-ment 23(3): 35
Lotz, Dave (1998) World War II Remnants. Guam, Northern Mariana Islands. A Guide and His-tory. Honolulu: Arizona Memorial Museum As-sociation.
Page, Stephen J. and Lawton, Glenda (1996) The Pacific Islands: markets, development and plan-ning issues. in: C. Michael Hall and Stephen J. Page (eds)., Tourism in the Pacific Issues and Cases. London: International Thomson Business Press. pp. 272-303.
Reisinger, Yvette and Turner, Lindsay (2000) Japa-nese tourism satisfaction: Gold Coast versus
Attitudes of Japanese Tourists towards Cultural Heritage Attractions in the CNMI 399
Hawaii. Journal of Vacation Marketing vol. 6 no. 4, pp. 299–317,
Sayers, Elizabeth (2001) Expectations of the Japa-nese Visitor Market to the Northern Mariana Is-lands. Bachelor of Applied Science, Honours Thesis. Charles Sturt University, Albury NSW
Sayers, Elizabeth and Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2006a) The Role of Cultural Attractions in the Motivations and Awareness Spectrum of Japa-nese Tourists in the CNMI. Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences vol. 5 nº 1/2, pp. 375-387.
Sayers, Elizabeth and Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2006b) Cultural heritage attractions in the CNMI: Visitor Satisfaction and Experiences of Japanese Tourists. Micronesian Journal of the Hu-manities and Social Sciences vol. 5 nº 1/2, pp. 400-412.
Sayers, Elizabeth and Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2006c) Provision of information on Cultural Attractions to Japanese Tourists in the CNMI. Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sci-ences vol. 5 nº 1/2, pp. 413-430.
Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (1991a) Taroa, Maloelap Atoll. Air Marshall Islands Sunday Escape. Folded tour brochure. Majuro: AIRMarshall Islands.
Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (1991b) Mile, Mile Atoll. Air Marshall Islands Sunday Escape. Folded tour brochure. Majuro: AIRMarshall Islands. 2pp
Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2001) Memories, Memo-rabilia and Monuments: Private, Territorial and Federal Interpretations of the Pacific War in Guam. in: Dirk H.R. Spennemann and Neal Putt (eds), Cultural Interpretation of Heritage Sites in the Pacific. Suva, Fiji: Pacific Islands Museums Association/Association des Musées des Îles du Pacifique. pp. 49-68.
Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (2003) Teacher and Stu-dent perceptions of the cultural heritage of the CNMI. An empirical snap-shot. The Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences vol. 2 nº 1–2, pp. 50–58.
Spennemann, Dirk H.R., Look, David W. and Gra-ham, Kristy (2001) Perceptions of Heritage Eco-tourism by Micronesian Decision Makers. John-stone Centre Report Vol. 147. Albury, NSW: The Johnstone Centre, Charles Sturt University.
Spennemann, Dirk H.R., Look, David W. and Gra-ham, Kristy (2002) Heritage Ecotourism in Micronesia: What do Decision Makers expect? Pacific Tourism Review vol 6 nº1, pp. 51-61.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY AND CONTACT Elizabeth Sayers completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Ecotourism) Honours at Charles Sturt University, Albury Australia in 2001. Since complet-ing her degree she has been working in environ-mental education and natural heritage protection and expansion. Elizabeth is currently the Executive Coordinator of the National Parks Association of Queensland and has recently undertaken further studies in Adult Education. CONTACT: Elizabeth Sayers, Executive Coordinator, Na-tional Parks Association Queensland, PO Box 1040, Mil-ton Centre, Brisbane QLD 4064, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Dirk HR Spennemann is Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage Management at Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia. His main research in-terests are German colonial heritage in Oceania, in particular Micronesia, and historic preservation is-sues in Micronesia in general. His second focus rests in the area of heritage futures, examining is-sues such as the conceptual understanding of emer-gent heritage(s) and the relationship between cultural heritage values and the influences of management processes as they play out between heritage professionals and the general public. CONTACT: A/Professor Dirk H.R. Spennemann, Charles Sturt University, P.O.Box 789, Albury NSW 2640, Australia e-mail [email protected]
