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- Title:
- Professor
- Teacher Group:
- Culture and Tourism
Classes
Sociology of Tourism
Class Content
Culture and Tradition Transformed by Tourism Media
When a place becomes a tourist destination, it does not only mean that the number of people visiting it will increase. In Japan, World Heritage sites have a great influence as a tourism brand. However, the process from the preparation for registration to post-registration involves socio-cultural selection and bargaining over what is worthy of World Heritage status and what is not.
Making a place into a tourist attraction is nothing but the editing and staging of these cultures and traditions. In my class, we will focus on the factors behind the process of making a place unique as a tourist destination, and how the transformation of a place into a tourist destination affects the consciousness and experience of the hosts and guests, and acquire basic knowledge in the fields of sociology, anthropology, tourism, and religious studies.
Brief Outline of History & Achievements
Born in Tokyo in 1979. Received a doctorate in literature from Tsukuba University. Specializes in sociology of religion and tourism. Works include Edo Tōkyō no seichi o aruku (Walking the Sacred Sites of Edo-Tokyo) and Pilgrimages in the Secular Age: From El Camino to Anime.
To Personal Page on Hokkaido University's Researcher Directory
Academic Society Affiliations
Japanese Association for Religious Studies, Japan Institute of Tourism Research
okamoto@imc.hokudai.ac.jp
Research Areas
Sociology of Tourism and Traditional Culture
Interests
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g00658/keeping-the-faith-christ%e2%80%99s-tomb-in-aomori-and-japanese-religion.html