“Endless Discovery: Re-evaluating Japan’s Travel and Tourism”
16th Annual International Conference on Japanese Studies
by Ateneo de Manila University, Japanese Studies Program
DATES: 2-3 February, 2018
VENUE: Ateneo de Manila University, Manila
Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 October 2017
(reposting from conference official website; h/t Prof. Karl Ian Cheng Chua)
OVERVIEW:
In 2015, Japan welcomed a record of close to 20 million tourists. This is partially due to the success of national government’s policies through the campaigns launched by the Japan National Tourism Organization via its international offices. International visitors were not only attracted to visit Japan through these national government campaigns. On the one hand, “contents tourism” or film-induced/media-induced tourism has become in vogue as well. Early on, the target market for “contents tourism” was a domestic market, who consume domestic media, which in turn evolved to domestic tourism via the visitation of the “sites of the contents.” With the globalization of Japanese media, even foreign visitors now engage in this domestic “contents tourism.” Furthermore, the sites have expanded to encourage domestic (Japanese) consumers to travel abroad when the sites are purportedly set in foreign countries. Local governments in Japan have also ventured into their own domestic tourism strategies, with local governments aggressively encouraging foreign movie companies to use their cities as filming sites. There are other local governments which have launched their own domestic campaigns which have also attracted the attention of international visitors. Finally, a recent trend in Japan is directed services, particularly to Muslim tourists with special needs like halal food and prayer rooms.
On the other hand, the Philippines was able to attract a total of 5.4 million visitors in the same year. This is partially due to the successes of the Department of Tourism with its campaigns such as “It’s More Fun in the Philippines.” However, we still lag behind in our domestic tourism campaigns, with the capacities to attract foreign visitors.
Hence, the two-day conference gathers experts in the field of tourism in Japan in the hopes that their research can enrich our own tourism industries, as well as students in the tourism and hospitality degrees. At the same time, it invites scholars conducting tourism research on the Philippines to enable networking and exchange of information to enrich and discuss new perspectives towards tourism research
The conference organizers welcome paper submissions that are aligned with this year’s conference theme. It hopes to generate discussion that aims to enhance knowledge on tourism, and the use of various disciplines in the tourism research. The conference particularly encourages critical studies in the following areas:
• Contents Tourism
• Eco-tourism
• Sustainability in Tourism
• Tourism and the Classroom
Other related topics are also welcome. Please submit the abstracts to this link on or before 30 October 2017. All submissions will be refereed.
The conference will consist of sessions with 20 min. for each paper
(+ sufficient Q&A time)
Abstracts and bios should be in English. Please include a title, your name, affiliation, contact details (mailing address, email) and a brief description of your paper (maximum of 500 words).
Please direct any inquiries (jspadmu@gmail.com)
What can I do with a B.A. in Japanese Studies? 