SCT Forum

International SCT Conference Purpose

Sustainable Community Tourism is about a form of tourism that has the aim of creating sustainable communities. That means that creating a sustainable community is the primary aim with tourism being one of the methods to achieve this. The success of such a form of tourism would be in the measurement of happiness, health, sustainability, and connectedness in the communities engaged in such tourism.

It is also measured by the degree to which the community's children and grandchildren are proud of their local culture and identity and feel an deep connection with their community with a desire to reside in and engage in their own communities as a member of a global community. 

Our purpose here is to stimulate the creation of a world wide network of individuals and communities that share the common goal of creating sustainable, happy, healthy, and connected communities that are developing not with knowledge, but also with wisdom. 

By members of this network visiting each other over the next months and years we hope to exchange much knowledge, wisdom, know-how, ideas, and technology that will serve to enhance the value of our communities respectively. 

Presently, the international situation is one dominated by market economics and globalization with little attention to the effects this is having on local communities around the world. Globalization is slowly destroying the very fabric of society and culture that enables the ongoing transmission of culture, lifestyle, and traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation and was integrally connected to the natural environment in which communities flourished. Communities around the world are now facing a crisis of identity and each successive generation is being left feeling disconnected, angry, and hopeless about their future in their local community. The resulting loss of community is now beginning to threaten global and regional security on many levels.

On the one hand, here in Kumano, we are experiencing an aging population and a decreasing population overall. The youth are leaving and the people sustaining the community are the elderly. When they are gone the community's existence will be hanging on a thin thread. As each year goes by more an more shops are shut down and what were once thriving business districts are now nicknamed as the 'shutter streets'. More and more people are becoming very concerned and anxious about the future and are wondering if there will be a community and economy left for their children to inherit. 

Looking at Japan as a whole, this issue is not confined to Kumano. Rather it is an issue affecting communities all over the country. One of the ways communities are trying to grapple with this problem is by using tourism to generate revenue for their economies. However, there is stiff competition for a small number of tourists, and since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the number of foreign tourists has dropped dramatically. 

Given this situation, the 'Sustainable Community Tourism International Forum and Experiential Program in Kumano' aims to encourage exchange visits that build networks, foster awareness of the challenges and the solutions by drawing upon the wisdom and experience of different countries, backgrounds, and cultures with the intention of facilitating a form of travel that focuses on developing and maintaining sustainable communities. In Japan, even in niche markets, there is still no competition in the area of sustainable community tourism. However, overseas there are new trends in the world of travel where visitors are looking for deeper and more meaningful experiences. Sustainable Community Tourism in Kumano can become a model for future programs that focus on using travel as a means of fostering sustainable communities and lifestyles.


Moreover, this forum is focused on two main aspects that we hope will lead to more sustainable community development. One aspect looks at the visible indicators as reflected in the state of the economy, the environment, the local landscape, and social activities. The other aspect has to do with invisible 'bonds' and 'connections' that make up the 'social capital' without which our communities will tend to disintegrate. 

Of course there are the bonds between members of the community as individuals. However, there are also the invisible connections that affect the bonds to one's land, the sense of having a 'hometown', spiritual foundations, one's view of life and death, one's worldview, culture and traditions, and all that makes up the fabric of a sustainable community. The invisible bonds are what supports the local community from generation to generation and prevents the complete collapse of community life while maintaining pride in the fact that they are part of a community continuity. These invisible connections and the love of one's own region, one's own 'place' in the world and community, as well as the deep connections to one's environment are all essential to creating sustainable communities now and in the future. 

Sustainable Community Tourism could be the key to solving common problems via the exchange and feedback that comes from intercultural exchanges with people from completely different cultural, historical, and environmental contexts. Through this process both visitors and the host community may gain a new perspective on the richness of their host culture as well as their own. Often visitors are able to see the bonds, value, and richness, that has over time become hidden to the local community through familiarity. This process can awaken a new awareness and pride in one's own community and culture leading members of the community to re-ignite their desire to maintain all that is good about their communities while learning from others to improve their lives in the global context.

We hope that this forum may be an opportunity for Kumano to propose a whole new model of travel, tourism, and visitor interaction. By way of expanding a worldwide 'Sustainable Community Tourism Network' the objective would be to foster the exchange of people whose have the shared vision and objectives that lead to community self-sufficiency, sustainability, and pride. By exchanging know how, knowledge, wisdom, and techniques we can learn from each other to encourage sustainable community development in our respective countries and communities. By doing so we hope that this would be the first step in reviving local communities while sustaining their natural, cultural, historical and environmental inheritance. 


Once upon a time, people coming to Kumano came with the objective of spiritually and physically renewing themselves. Perhaps Kumano can once again be a place where people travel to with the specific objective of sharing wisdom, knowledge, and know how that will lead to more integrated, happy, healthy, and proud sustainable communities both here in Kumano and abroad.