We all know now
that films can have a powerful impact on the desire to travel to certain
destinations – fans of Lord of the Rings and James Bond have been flocking to
New Zealand and the UK respectively for many years to visit their favorite film
locations. But can cartoons have a similar influence?
In a new
journal article just accepted in Current
Issues in Tourism, SmartState Chair Simon Hudson suggests they can. In the
article - co-authored with Vince Tung and Suna Lee from Hong Kong Polytechnic
University – the authors explore the world of animation tourism - motivated
tourists who purposely visit a destination or partake in activities at a
destination as a result of anime. Japanese animation, or anime, emerged in the
1910s and developed into its modern, distinctive form in the 1960s. It is
comprised of two components: manga and animation. Manga, which means recurring
drawings, are comic strips that employ an exquisite drawing style with descriptive
formats and fluid strokes. Animation, similar to Western cartoons, is featured
on television and videos with storylines and characters that are often based on
manga.
A good example
of anime resulting in tourism is Your
Name (Makoto Shinkai’s teen body swap
comedy). The beauty, and the film’s romanticism, have turned the Japanese
locations featured in the anime into fan meccas, with tourists flocking to the
real life locations – the steps to a shrine in downtown Tokyo, a public library
in the rural town of Hida, mundane looking train tracks in the same quiet
countryside – despite knowing it won’t be exactly as they’ve seen it on the big
screen (see https://amuse-i-d.vice.com/anime-tourism-the-movies-turning-rural-japan-into-a-mecca/ for more).
The new article
proposes a novel framework for capturing animation tourism marketing
opportunities and provides a conceptual foundation to ignite a new generation
of future research interests that are much needed in this area. The authors
argue that destination management organizations (DMOs) and tourism marketers in
Japan can use anime to ignite their marketing campaigns, as unique
opportunities are generated given the distinctive characteristics, timely
releases of new, as well as the long-term continuation of existing franchises,
in a variety of storylines. Additionally, businesses and services could be
created through animation tourism that would encourage visitors throughout the
year.
The article on
anime tourism is called The Potential of Anime for
Destination Marketing: Fantasies, Otaku, and the Kidult Segment and will soon be online
at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2017.1368462
