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  Title:

  Associate Professor

  Teacher Group:

  Regional Tourism Management

  Web site

Classes

Art and Festival Tourism
Creative Tourism
Media Culture and Representation
Regional Studies

Class Content

Exploring Creativity and Rural Tourism Revitalization in Non-Urban Areas

The Art and Festival Tourism class focuses on the relationship between art and tourism, providing an understanding of contemporary art concepts such as land art, environmental art, public art, relational aesthetics, site-specific art, and art involved in revitalization efforts. Students will gain insight into culture mapping and creative geographies, exploring the mechanisms of art tourism and festival tourism, and their roles in urban and rural revitalization, gentrification, and the impact of creative and relational geographies. The course also delves into rural and island studies, focusing on island culture, creative rural residents, islandness, and the creation and transformation of ‘art islands.’
In the Creative Tourism class, students will learn about the evolution of cultural tourism and creative tourism, and will develop the ability to critically engage with academic literature and apply professional insights. The course will also cover cultural sustainability, emphasizing sustainable tourism, sustainable cultural tourism, and creative tourism within the context of sustainability, as well as how to use cultural indicators for research. Finally, students will explore creative research methods in creative tourism studies, including action research, service learning, filmmaking, and idea mining workshops for fieldwork.

Brief Outline of History & Achievements

Meng Qu (渠蒙), Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Center for Advanced Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University. He co-convenes the Small Island Cultures Research Initiative (SICRI) and serves as Associate Editor for Tourism Geographies and Folk, Knowledge, Place, Regional Editor for Event Management, and editorial board member for Shima, Journal of Marine and Island Cultures (JMIC), and Journal of Responsible Tourism Management (JRTM), among others.

His research focuses on the revitalization of rural communities through international art festivals, emphasizing socially engaged art, regional festivals, creative tourism, relational aesthetics, creative in-migrants, sustainability, and rural regeneration. He integrates documentary filmmaking as a method for fieldwork and public engagement. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from creative and tourism geography and rural studies, he is currently leading a comparative project on community-embedded art and rural revitalization across the Asia-Pacific and the EU. He is also assisting with a study on social change in island communities in the UK, Canada, and Japan. His research has received funding from JSPS KAKENHI, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and the British Academy.

Dr. Meng began his career in design (2006–2015), progressing into leadership roles as Interactive Design Director and Vice President in Shanghai and Beijing, where he specialized in tourism-oriented spatial narratives—a foundation for his subsequent work in destination development and entrepreneurship. He has participated in art revitalization projects since 2011, including the Xucun International Art Festival (China), the Setouchi Triennale (Japan), and other regional initiatives between the two countries as a volunteer, staff member, and researcher. His consultancy work since 2021 spans international and domestic contexts, including advising the UN Tourism Asia-Pacific Executive Training Programme, Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), regional tourism associations, and inbound tourism firms across Japan.

To Personal Page on Hokkaido University's Researcher Directory

Academic Society Affiliations

International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission on Tourism, Leisure and Global Change
American Association of Geographers (AAG) - Recreation, Tourism & Sport (RTS)
European Regional Science Association (ERSA) Congress
European Society for Rural Sociology Congress (ESRS)
International Conference of the European Association for Japanese Studies (EAJS)
Critical Tourism Studies Asia Pacific (CTSAP)
CREATOUR International
Island Studies International Conference (ISIC)
Chinese Studies Association of Australia (CSAA) Biennial Conference
The Japanese Society for Geographical Sciences (JSGS)

E-mail

meng@cats.hokudai.ac.jp

Research Areas

Tourism Geography, Creative Tourism, Creative Geography, Rural Studies, Island Studies, Interdisciplinary Research, Mixed Research Methods, New Media Art, Interactive Aesthetics (Augmented/Virtual Reality)

Interests

Keynotes:
Reimagining Cultural Tourism: Co-creating Socially Embedded Futures
Keynote speech by Dr. Meng Qu for the UN Tourism Asia-Pacific Executive Training Programme, exploring how cultural tourism can foster community-embedded, sustainable futures.
https://youtu.be/U6qqsPMeRMI?si=GJgkg9mmiiqJZhLR

Interviews:
Rural Revival in Small Island Cultures (Shikoku–Chugoku Region)
Interview with Dr. Meng Qu by JJ Walsh (Inbound Ambassador - Seek Sustainable Japan), focusing on rural revitalization and socially engaged art in Japan’s small island communities.
https://www.youtube.com/live/ELT3lbKY1Ac?si=faj8z45YuPFa2gGy

Use of Events for Social Revitalisation
InsideEvents interview by Dr. Mike Duignan featuring Dr. Meng Qu discussing how festivals and events contribute to social and cultural revitalization.
https://youtu.be/gJBWdF4M8vw?si=WLr-LGizv4Sbrg9W

Research Documentaries:
UKOAPKAS: Indigenous Art & Sustainability
Short research documentary directed by Dr. Meng Qu and produced by Dr. Kanako Uzawa, exploring connections between Ainu and Aboriginal Australian art through a linoprint workshop and cultural dialogue.
https://youtu.be/oFN65Su3X-M?si=ncEpqQlqFBbPpGhN

Island Revitalization Documentary Series (Tobishima Sea Route, Japan)
A series of collaborative documentary films (2021–2022) by Dr. Meng Qu and Dr. Simona Zollet, showcasing arts, crafts, and in-migrant stories from five islands in Western Japan. Produced with island communities and student volunteers to promote regional creativity and attract new residents.
https://www.sicri.net/islandrevitalization