著者

渡辺 悌二 古畑 亜紀

出版者

The Hokkaido Geographical Society

雑誌

北海道地理 (ISSN:02852071)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.1998, no.72, pp.1-11, 1998

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The Asahidake gondola ropeway, which is operated in Daisetsuzan National Park, central Hokkaido, northern Japan, will be renewed by the year 2000. The maximum transport capacity of the gondola will be upgraded from 46 to 101 passengers. This improvement is mainly due to the exceeding number of passengers. The questionnaire was handed to 275 visitors to the alpine area around the "Sugatami-no-ike" hiking promenade from 22 to 31 July and from 15 to 18 September 1994.<BR>The critical time (minutes) for being able to be waited for the next available gondola ranged from 0 to 150 minutes with an average of 29.1 minutes. The actual time to be waited during the most crowded season is estimated as around 150 minutes. Therefore, the present operation of the gondola ropeway certainly provides poor service to the passengers.<BR>Most visitors do not regard shortening the waiting time for a gondola as the first priority. They prefer mitigating environmental degradation which might be caused by the improvement of the gondola ropeway and related facilities. This result suggests that the owner of the gondola ropeway should include the improvement of visitor management in the area besides shortening the waiting time for a gondola.<BR>The visitors also showed strong interests in natural environments in the alpine area of the Sugatami-no-ike. They are interested in having a photograph exhibition room in the station building (47.3% of the questioned visitors), and introducing a nature guide system (34.9%). Because of the limitted availability in national park rangers and governmental budget, a nature guide system may be privately introduced by the ropeway company.<BR>Some visitors to the alpine area believed that they could walk anywhere in the national park, and complained that they were not allowed to see alpine plants with no restriction. They also showed strong attitudes toward inquiring the nature and developing their interests in nature. These results show that visitors should be enlightened the meaning of a national park and the necessity of nature conservation. These improvements require the nature guide system. In addition, scientists can help to install photograph panels and sign boards to explain the importance in the alpine nature, to clearly state the critical problems and how a change in behavior will improve the vegetation damage and soil erosion on a trail.<BR>These measures to improve the visitor management need continuous budget, which might be collected with a ropeway fare by the company.