The effectiveness of countermeasure services against declining visitor numbers to ski resorts in nagano, Japan

Abstract

The market for ski resorts in Japan has shrunk continuously due to the socioeconomic and demographic conditions that began in the early 1990s, a trend which could occur in other parts of the globe. In response to that decline, ski resorts have implemented various countermeasures. However, no empirical evaluation has fully assessed the effectiveness of these countermeasure services against the longstanding shrinkage of demand related to skiing and the impact of changing climatic conditions. Therefore, from a supply-side perspective, this paper evaluated the degree of the retardative effect, i.e., slowing the shrinkage in demand, of these actions on the number of ski resort operations by the Dynamic Panel Data model using a Pooled Mean Group estimator in Nagano. Results revealed that supply-side countermeasure services such as snow-making and provision of day care had positive effects on ski resort operations to some extent while rising temperatures had a detrimental impact on the retardative effect and partially offset it.