Report on the workshop for considering a gateway facility linking Mihama Town's hands-on energy and environment education facility 'Kiipasu' with tourism. Discussions on how to vitalize the facility and the region in cooperation with local communities

Three years since its opening, Mihama Town's hands-on energy and environment education facility "Kiipasu" is steadily attracting more visitors but still needs to work on attracting individual visitors. Reasons for this situation include: people believe the facility is too serious for a casual visit, is too remotely located, or does not have any other attractions nearby. Taking the need to repair "Kiipasu" gymnasium as an opportunity, Mihama Town requested that the gymnasium be remodeled to enable new exhibits to be displayed and to include a space for group visitors, to boost the appeal of "Kiipasu" and the number of visitors. However, enhancing the appeal of "Kiipasu" alone will not boost the number of visitors; the entire local district of "Niu" needs to change. Accordingly, a workshop led by a specialist and consisting of representatives of local communities and experts was launched to plan the remodeling of the gymnasium and the future of the "Niu" district including "Kiipasu". Through six workshops, the themes and concept for conveying the new appeals of "Kiipasu" and "Niu" were established. (author)