2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

The role of intra-cultural and cross-cultural tourist-tourist interactions in the tourism service encounter

Research Project

Project/Area Number	18K11864
Research Institution	Otaru University of Commerce
Principal Investigator	Praet Carolus 小樽商科大学, 商学部, 教授 (40292081)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	鈴木和宏小樽商科大学, 商学部, 教授 (10708366) 王力勇小樽商科大学, 商学部, 准教授 (70772466)
Project Period (FY)	2018-04-01 – 2024-03-31
Keywords	tourism / social interaction / cross-cultural / inbound tourism / tourist-tourist / intra-cultural
Outline of Annual Research Achievements	This project investigates both cross-cultural and intra-cultural tourist-tourist interaction and the role it plays in the overall visitor experience. During the first stage of the research project, we collected qualitative data from domestic and international tourists in Japan. We conducted interviews in English with Western tourists, interviews with Chinese tourists, and interviews with domestic Japanese tourists. Results of the Chinese data appeared as a chapter of Sustainable and Collaborative Tourism in a Digital World in April 2021. In January 2021, a second paper appeared in the journal Tourism Planning & Development.
Current Status of Research Progress	Current Status of Research Progress 4: Progress in research has been delayed. Reason The COVID-19 pandemic has for almost three years suspended inbound tourism to Japan and has prevented us from collecting data on social interactions among domestic and inbound tourists.
Strategy for Future Research Activity	The Japanese government opened its borders to foreign independent tourists in October 2022, and inbound tourism is currently returning to pre-pandemic levels. However, despite the government easing guidelines and lowering the categorization of COVID-19 to the same level as the seasonal flue, reports indicate that a majority of Japanese citizens still uses facial masks in public places. We are monitoring reports and data on mask usage and are considering including items to measure health-related risk perceptions of social interaction into our survey instrument. We plan to pretest our survey instrument and to then conduct offline and online quantitative surveys among Japanese and inbound travelers.
Causes of Carryover	The COVID-19 pandemic has for almost three years suspended inbound tourism to Japan and, even after Japan opened its borders to foreign independent tourists in October 2022, has prevented us from collecting data on social interactions among domestic and inbound travelers without perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 influencing the social aspects of travel behavior. We plan to allocate budget to conducting surveys among domestic travelers and inbound travelers to Japan. In addition, we plan to allocate part of the budget for travel to international conferences to present our research.