Kamaishi City, which suffered extensive damage in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, formulated the Kamaishi City Tourism Promotion Vision in 2017 to create a new town and a tourist destination in the wake of the disaster. This vision, which proposed the Kamaishi Open Field Museum Concept, in which the entire city of Kamaishi is considered a museum without a roof, was to be accomplished by realizing post-disaster reconstruction through tourism. One of the measures in this vision is the promotion of sustainable tourism and the introduction of the standards prescribed by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). The vision clearly states that Kamaishi aims to become the first city in Japan to obtain GSTC Certified Destination status by introducing management evaluation indicators that meet international standards.

Efforts to create a sustainable tourism destination in Kamaishi City are underway following discussions to formulate a Vision for the Promotion of Tourism in Kamaishi City. Following the formulation of this vision, the city has adopted the Green Destinations program, put on by Green Destinations, an international standard certification organization, to hone its capabilities and encourage the participation of residents while putting the Kamaishi Open Field Museum into practice.