Tourist Experience in Climate Change Tourism: The Case of Tuvalu, Polynesia

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K18285
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 80020:Tourism studies-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo Keizai University
• Principal Investigator: Kobayashi Makoto 東京経済大学, コミュニケーション学部, 准教授 (10771826)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 気候変動ツーリズム / 観光経験 / 消えゆく景観 / ポリネシア / ツバル

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study focuses on the experience of tourists in climate change tourism through a case study of Tuvalu, Polynesia. Tourists made sense of the landscape as "disappearing" by actively situating what they saw there in the context of climate change. The media and local guides had a significant impact on this process. In addition, many of the tourists felt some kind of ethical responsibility and their ethics were based on the opposition between we, the Japanese perpetrators, and they, the Tuvaluan victims. However, some saw tourism as a space of encounter and connection between people without being bound by such an opposition. This study discussed the importance of the ethical attitude nurtured in such relationships.

Free Research Field

文化人類学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、これまで理論的に注目を集めてきたものの、ほとんど実態を明らかにされてこなかった気候変動ツーリズムの一事例を詳細に明らかにすることができた。なかでも、観光者の経験が現地でダイナミックに形成されることを民族誌的に描写することができた。これにより、これまでのダークツーリズムとの比較に基づく理念的な研究が見落としてきた未来をめぐる経験という点に気候変動ツーリズムの特徴を抽出することができた。また、観光自体の倫理的な是非ではなく、観光者の倫理的な態度を明らかにしたことは、観光がもつ社会的な意味を再考する上で重要である。