Sustainable anime tourism: Dream-like town development using manga culture based on the ideas of manga artist ISHInoMORI Shotaro

Recently, anime tourism has been attracting attention, shown the potential of attracting overseas fans of manga and anime. and is expected to be a key factor in expanding Japan's inbound tourism demand. However, if the popularity of the anime/manga is transient, it is almost impossible to sustain the related tourism services. In this situation, we are trying to revitalize the local tourism industry of Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, by creating a dream-like town using manga culture based on the ideas of manga artist ISHInoMORI Shotaro. Specifically, to create sustainable tourism resources, the city is being developed based on flexible and unique “free-thinking like drawing manga,” rather than focusing on a single manga work. In this paper, we discuss the efforts and success of Ishinomaki City's town development and discuss future developmental pathways for further strengthening the foundations that may enable sustainable anime tourism.