Contents tourism: background, context, and future. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Graburn, Nelson; Yamamura, Takayoshi
• Is Part Of: Journal of tourism and cultural change. Volume 18:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 11
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Contents tourism -- performance -- pilgrimage -- narrative world -- media -- mediatization -- creative fandom -- popular culture; Tourism -- Periodicals; Heritage tourism -- Periodicals; 306.481905
• DOI: 10.1080/14766825.2020.1707460
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1476-6825

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This introductory essay shows a brief overview of issues discussed by previous contents tourism studies to provide the basic theoretical framework on analyzing contents tourism phenomena in the age of transmedia, multi-use of contents. Contents Tourism is a Japanese word designating tourism which is stimulated by Popular Culture. Under the present circumstances, fan tourists, as well as contents businesses and local authorities/communities, are all expressing their creativity in the context of tourism and delivering their contents through a variety of media. These creative activities by each actor increasingly blur their previous relationships, resulting in the formation of relatively loosely-bound communities transcending affiliations and nationalities, sharing contents as a communication tool. In other words, the relationships between the host and guests are blurred and a community connected by contents and transcending previous differences has been formed. From this point of view, in this special issue, we will explore the development of contents tourism in Japan and its trans-cultural global influences, as well as comparable developments in other countries, focusing especially on the creativity of contents tourism and the growth of 'tribes' of fans.