Paper short abstract:

Adaptive reuse of vacant buildings as tourist lodgings can contribute to sustainability and townscape preservation. This paper will analyze the reuse of vacant buildings as accommodation from the aspects of sustainability and tourism gentrification through the example of Onomichi City.

Paper long abstract:

Vacant buildings (akiya) in Japan have received attention as a by-product of demographic decline and a threat to neighbourhood life. On the other hand, the inbound tourism boom, while interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, has created a shortage in accommodation facilities. Renovation of traditional machiya and other vacant buildings as lodgings can address this shortage and at the same time offer international visitors a unique Japanese experience. This kind of adaptive reuse contributes to sustainability as housing stock is recycled instead of wasted; it also helps to preserve townscapes and landmark buildings. While it may rejuvenate towns and rural areas facing severe depopulation, it can nevertheless lead to rising land prices and commercialization of residential areas, in other words trigger tourism gentrification. This paper will analyze adaptive reuse of vacant buildings as tourist accommodation from the viewpoint of sustainability and tourism gentrification through the example of Onomichi City in Hiroshima Prefecture. It will examine factors that lead to renovation, actors involved, methods employed and types of tourists attracted to evaluate the environmental, social and economic effects on tourist destinations. Onomichi City is popular as a domestic and international tourist destination combining old houses and temples scattered on the hillside, restaurants and promenades along the seafront and a retro shopping district in-between. A lack of business hotels common in most Japanese cities combined with a large stock of vacant buildings create ideal conditions for adaptive reuse as accommodation facility. Research was conducted through analysis of PR material from each facility, semi-structured interviews with lodging owners and managers and a questionnaire survey of tourists staying in the lodgings. Results show a large variety of building types and actors involved, leading to increased diversification of the types of tourists attracted to the city. On the other hand, facilities rarely emphasize sustainability as an appealing factor for tourists. Tourists’ interest in and awareness of the fact that they stayed in a renovated building differed depending on their nationality and the type of lodging. Diversity of actors and building types emerged as a key factor in the adaptive reuse of vacant buildings as tourist accommodation.

Paper short abstract:

This research explores how the tourism industry governing stakeholders from the public and private sectors in Japan are working together to respond to the challenges for sustainable tourism development during a crisis and increase the industry’s resilience.

Paper long abstract:

This research explores how the tourism industry governing stakeholders from the public and private sectors in Japan are working together to respond to the challenges for sustainable tourism development during a crisis and increase the industry’s resilience. This research utilizes a blended method involving qualitative interviews to investigate experts’ thoughts on sustainable tourism development, challenges to its governance during a crisis, and their insights on changes and transformations towards a more resilient and sustainable tourism industry and the thematic content analysis of national- and prefectural-level tourism development plans.

This research has a goal to investigate sustainable tourism development before, during, and immediately after the COVID-19 crisis, which has been a critical time for the tourism industry in Japan and all over the world. Moreover, this research pursues to uncover the true sustainable nature of tourism, which involves substantial collaboration between multilevel governing public- and private-sector actors as key players and stakeholders in this crucially important sector. The conceptual framework of this research is based on the perspective that through a collaborative approach to tourism governance, the currently predominant reactive nature of sustainable tourism development policies and crisis risk management measures can be shifted to proactiveness in dealing with crises and by that achieving resilience and sustainability of a tourism destination.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet and is just gradually going to the post-pandemic stage with an increasing number of countries reopening their borders for international tourists, building resilience for the destination and tourism industry is essential for further survival and strengthening in case of a similar crisis. Collaboration and coordination between various institutions such as government (national and local), DMOs, and the private sector in tourism development significantly assist in analyzing the sustainability of the tourism industry and transforming needs into opportunities for further development.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation draws on a case study to show how a rural municipality attempted to create new tourist resources during the COVID-19 years. While the pandemic circumstances favored some unique projects, their sustainability was questionable, and resulted in local friction.

Paper long abstract:

Global tourism came to an unexpected halt during the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan, whose economy shifted towards inbound tourism in the last decade—including the mega event of the Tokyo Olympics—locked itself down from foreign visitors and troubled its national tourism industry as a result. To compensate this loss, national programs like “Go to Travel” in 2020/21 (or its successor “National Travel Support” in late 2022) were meant to lure domestic tourists to the countryside. The central government, furthermore, provided COVID-19 support funds that we were then used to create new touristic resources in the countryside, such as the giant squid monument in Noto, Ishikawa.

This talk will present the work-in-progress case study of Hita, located in Oita Prefecture. During the pandemic years, this rural city attempted to establish new resources for media tourism, namely through its connection to the manga “Attack on Titan.” The place making of this municipality in collaboration with local fans and entrepreneurs was productive in establishing diverse infrastructure and items related to the manga, such a museum, bronze figures, food dishes, and souvenirs. This became possible due to governmental subsidies. In this process of place making and contesting financial resources, however, the local actors experienced friction. Local fans as well as the inhabitants of the old town district became alienated from the place making activities which aimed to transform Hita into an “Attack on Titan” theme park-like cityscape that should attract visitors. Nonetheless, the recent increase in visitors show promise and opportunities for the municipality to sustain itself financially and socially.

As a preliminary investigation, this case study exemplifies how rural Japan has not only struggled under the pandemic situation but has used it as a chance to explore new opportunities for revitalization. The common place making brought positive dynamics and creativity into a rural community. However, even though on the surface a promising tourism infrastructure could be established during a short period of time, the social tensions on the local level may grow into a crucial issue in the long-term and should therefore be carefully negotiated among the involved actors.

Paper short abstract:

Rural cities like Iga, the so-called mecca of ninja enthusiasts, build on increased attention on the covert agents of Japan's Warring State period and seek to draw visitors to ninja museums and festivals, using innovative experiences and battling the constraints due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

With the declaration of an official "Ninja Day" in 2015, Japan underwent a renewed interest in the ninja, the covert agents of its Warring State period (15th-17th centuries). Rural cities like Iga, the so-called mecca of ninja enthusiasts, build on this attention and seek to draw visitors to ninja museums and festivals. Guiding tourists into their city through the fictionalized image of the ninja in a black outfit tossing throwing-stars, ninja associations and exhibition curators still aim to teach about the ways of the historical shinobi, as these agents were actually called in the past. Only a year before the pandemic hit, the Iga Tourism Association began to involve people more directly through first-hand experiences. In the format of larps — live-action role-play — and collaborating with Mie University in a rural revitalization project, the Association tried to rekindle the flame of the 2015 ninja boom. "Larp" refers to games in which players take on fictional characters, interact in an improv-like manner, overcome challenges, and tell shared stories. Iga considered larps because the visitor numbers to its yearly ninja-festival were already beginning to decline in 2018. This presentation builds on fieldwork during several runs of this ninja larp. It explores the experiences with the relationship between fictional ninja and historical shinobi as well as how the organizers dealt with the pandemic. With larp itself being a novelty, participants focus primarily on this modality of a curated experience in their assessment rather than on its historical elements. Still, the events in Iga point to the possibilities of learning about the past through "history larp" on the one hand. They also exemplify moments of innovation in Japan's periphery on the other.