Rediscovering the ‘Racket Theory’ The Relation between the Trunk Transportation Distance and the Tourist’s Touring Area

The trunk transportation is the transportation that carries tourists from their home to the gateway of their trip destination, and back. The distance of the trunk transportation and the space of the area tourists travel at the destination show a positive correlation, i.e., the longer the tourists travel to the destination, the wider they tend to travel in the destination. This relationship is known in the Japanese tourism development field as the “Racket Theory.” Tennis rackets have longer handle and a wider hoop area than a table tennis racket, whose handle is shorter and the hoop smaller. Transportation distance is the handle of the racket, and the width of the area at the destination is the racket hoop. This theory was first introduced by the tourism researchers in the 1970s when only 200 plus million people annually traveled in Japan. . Now after almost five decades and after introduction of new transportation modes and new communication media, and now when approximately 300 million trips take place, does this theory still hold true? To verify the validity of the theory, this study measured and compared the distances and the areas of the package tours actually marketed in Japan by a major travel agency, the width of the regions covered by tour brochure series, and the area of the region covered by the major travel guide books. These study showed that when Japanese travelers travel far from their home, they tend to visit tourist spots in the wider area, endorsing the concept of the Theory. The Racket Theory, by defining an area that a tourist travel, can be a powerful guideline for tourist assets or facilities, in that it reveals which other assets or facilities would come as their competitors\