The case of Iwami Silver Mine
What should be done to make World Heritage Sites truly attractive tourist destinations? In July 2007, "The Iwami Silver Mine and Associated Cultural Landscape,” was registered a UNESCO World Heritage sites. The site includes the former mining town and the port and roads used to ship silver. The Iwami site's special historical value was credited to stimulate the East to West trade during 16th-19th centuries. The concept of ‘co-existence with nature’ was also valued in the designation. By September 2007, the visitor arrival to the site increased by approximately 50% from same period of the previous year.
Mayuko Kono Columnist
Iwami Silver Mine site still faces some challenges to become a fully matured World Heritage tourist area. First, it needs to develop a tourist environment in which visitors can comfortably stay and visit the site. At the Iwami site, the entry of private vehicles to central area is limited in order to preserve the environment of the site and of the local residents’ daily lives. Limited access also aims to guarantee safety in sightseeing. The site offers visitors a park & ride service, which is currently reducing stress over the site.
After parking the cars outside of the site, visitors must wait for a long time to catch shuttle buses that take them to the site. In addition, few visitors get off the bus on their way to the silver mine site to see a wider scale of the site, because they are charged 200 yen for each ride regardless of the distance. Some point out that visitors do not spend as much time at the Heritage Site as expected because of the inconvenient bus fare system.
At another World Heritage Site Shirakawa-go, the entry of vehicles to preservation district is also limited. Here, the park and ride system has been introduced with free shuttle bus. As a result, the average length of visitor stay in the preservation district increased from 1.5 hours to 2.2 hours. The Iwami Silver Mine, too, could do something to make the shuttle bus more convenient for visitors. Introducing passes that allow unlimited rides at a fixed price and joint passes inclusive of bus fare and entrance fees for the site are a few ideas that could ensure the visitors more comfortable stay.Iwami Silver Mine site still needs to enrich the service programs to help visitors better understand the site and enjoy their visit. Kumano Kodo, another World Heritage site in Japan, offers guided tours by registered storytellers. Iwami could make efforts to review and rediscover the tourism resources in the area, including local food and experience programs, and develop them into guided tours and other attractive tourism products.Sustaining and protecting the landscape and environment requires just as sensitive consideration as sustaining heritage site itself. Many tourists must have experienced great disappointment at finding souvenir products unrelated to the destination and ugly signboards at tourist areas. The most important factor to maintain and improve the attractiveness of the Iwami site in a long term would be to appropriately apply “Landscape Guideline” to maintain the general landscape, and “Management Plan” to operate shopping facilities at the site.
Being listed on the World Heritage site is the first step for the Iwami Silver Mine to become truly attractive tourist destination.
