CATS will hold the Tourism Online Forum Series (TOFS) vol.47 on Thursday, April 17. 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.47
▶ Click here for other archived videos.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4z592IeJi3FNJ98VevfDYA
Tourism Documentary: Unveiling the Potential of Regional Areas and Their Ideal Future
Abstract:
Tourism films are widely used for destination promotion. A 2014 Google survey found that 64% of travelers watch videos online before choosing their destination, highlighting the strong influence of video content. However, modern tourism videos are becoming shorter and more superficial, often failing to capture the essence of a place. As a result, tourists may develop a skewed perception of destinations, potentially attracting a different audience than originally intended. Tourism has evolved from "Where to go" to "Things to do" and now "How to be", focusing on local lifestyles and cultures. However, these deeper experiences are difficult to convey, making destination promotion challenging. Tourism documentary films can bridge this gap by capturing the daily lives of locals and their communities, presenting a more authentic vision of regional areas. This presentation explores how documentaries can help shape sustainable tourism and attract visitors who appreciate a destination’s true essence.
Keywords: Tourism documentary films, Destination promotion, Sustainable tourism, Local lifestyles and cultures, Tourism Film Festival
Hosted by: Hokkaido University, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS)
Date/Time: Thursday 17 April 2025 | 18:30-20:00 (JST)
Venue: Online (Zoom Webinar)
Language: English
Capacity: 50 persons
Participation fee: Free to join (pre-registration system)
Speaker: Dr. Tsuyoshi KIGAWA
Bio:
Tsuyoshi KIGAWA is a Professor in Faculty of Tourism, Wakayama University. After graduating the Kyoto Institute of Technology, he explored several countries, Sri Lanka, China, and USA as an architect and studied urban morphology at the Graduate School of University College London. After his return to Japan, in addition to urban research, he conducted research on how to distill narrative stories from local cities; and wrote scripts on Rakugo and short films. His latest film is “Yokosuka 1953." In this film, he tried to find a real mother of a woman born of mixed races, who was born in Japan just after the war and was adopted and relocated to the United States. He is currently festival director of Japan World's Tourism Film Festival.
Moderator: Dr. Meng Qu
Registration:
Please register at the URL below.
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qqjQjboAQSuRwrq-gnx1-w
Contact:
Hokkaido University, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS)
online-forum(at)cats.hokudai.ac.jp
*Please replace the (at) part with @.
