Research on the performance of tourists and its interaction with local communities in cultural heritage tourism

2024 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K20074
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 80020:Tourism studies-related
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University of Education (2023-2024); Kyoto Tachibana University (2020-2022)
• Principal Investigator: HIRAI Takefumi 北海道教育大学, 教育学部, 講師 (60846418)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2025-03-31
• Keywords: 文化遺産 / 観光 / パフォーマンス / 創発性 / インタープリテーション / 産業遺産

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study explores whether tourists’ performances at cultural heritage sites can emergently generate new meanings of heritage, and how such processes may impact local communities. First, by engaging with the theoretical framework of Critical Heritage Studies, the research established a foundational perspective that sees cultural heritage as a process which is “co-created” through tourism. The outcomes of this theoretical inquiry were also published as a translated book. Following this, case studies were conducted to examine the conditions under which such emergent meaning-making occurs. The study found that the characteristics of the tourism space and the forms of tourism significantly influence these conditions. While acknowledging the difficulties in fostering such emergence, the research also offers insights into how established discourses may be destabilized and reinterpreted.

Free Research Field

観光社会学、批判的ヘリテージ研究

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

学術的には、日本では充分に展開されてこなかった批判的ヘリテージ研究の理論を訳書として広く紹介しつつ、それを個別の事例へと援用し、事例研究と接合させるための課題を抽出した点を意義として挙げられる。また、文化遺産の社会学に観光研究の知見を接合させ、今日的な文化遺産保存の力学を明示したことも、本研究の意義の一つである。社会的に見ると、本研究のテーマは文化遺産観光の持続可能性の探究や、文化遺産の保存活用を通した社会的包摂のあり方の検討へとつながるものであり、これらの探究の萌芽となる知見を示せた点が意義として考えられる。