CATS will hold the Tourism Online Forum Series (TOFS) vol.36 on Thursday, July 4. Anyone is welcome to attend. We look forward to your participation.

*This forum has been finished.
  Archived videos are available on CATS official YouTube.

▶ Tourism Online Forum Series (TOFS) vol.36
　 https://youtu.be/Gx_i3vRHC04

▶ Click here for other archived videos.
　 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4z592IeJi3FNJ98VevfDYA

Place-making in contents tourism: the impacts on rural communities in Japan

Abstract:
Contents tourism is a dominant theme in Japan’s contemporary tourism agenda, particularly promising for rural municipalities lacking other significant tourist resources. The reopening to foreign tourists has further amplified these ambitions. This lecture draws on the ethnographic case study of Hita in Oita Prefecture to explore how the city has transformed into a “sacred place” within a few years. However, the swift development into a fan tourism site for the manga series Attack on Titan has caused tensions within the local community, including fans’ dissatisfaction with the degree of commercialization and concerns among historic town residents about the city’s new image. The lecture will provide insights into both the opportunities and risks associated with such a rapid creation of a contents tourism site.

Keywords: contents tourism, rural community, place-making, community-building, fandom

Hosted by: Hokkaido University, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS)

Date/Time: Thursday 4 July 2024  |  18:00-19:30 (JST)

Venue: Online (Zoom Webinar)

Language: English

Capacity: 50 persons

Participation fee: Free to join (pre-registration system)

Speaker: Dr. Timo Thelen
Bio:
Timo Thelen is Assistant Professor at the School of International Studies at Kanazawa University. He has studied Japanese Studies and Cultural Anthropology in Dusseldorf and Tokyo. His research focusses on popular media, tourism, and rural culture. His monograph Revitalization and Internal Colonialism in Rural Japan was released in the Japan Anthropology Workshop Series at Routledge in 2022. Recently he has been working on a research project on witch-themed tourism in Germany.

Moderator: Dr. Meng Qu

Registration:
Please register at the URL below. 
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ywIzDeo4TISp6XtWrunzcA

Contact:
Hokkaido University, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS)
online-forum(at)cats.hokudai.ac.jp
*Please replace the (at) part with @.