Unequal regional impacts of high speed rail on the tourism industry: a simulation analysis of the effects of Kyushu Shinkansen

Many high speed rail (HSR) routes are under construction in various cities of the world. Although tourism is one of the industries affected by HSR, not much is known about its effects on the same. This paper studies the impact of Kyushu's HSR (Shinkansen) on tourism using computable general equilibrium modeling in the context of regional economies and transportation. The results show that the HSR has unequal effects on tourism among prefectures. The presence of these inequalities depends on whether the prefecture is a served by HSR, whether it is a terminal or an intermediate HSR station, and its current popularity with the tourists. Despite these inequalities, the economies of all the prefectures are benefited by the HSR owing to general equilibrium effects.