Rethinking the Meaning of “Hospitality” in Tourism-Based Community Development

This paper poses the question of whether or not “hospitality management” employed for Tourism-Based Community Development (TBCD) is appropriate. In business terminology, the two terms “hospitality” and “service” have been interchangeably used in Japanese society since the 1990s. However, the original meaning of “hospitality” indicates “a hearty welcome without compensation,” whereas “service” as a business word means “charged support.” The residents’ practice of “hospitality” in its original concept has been highly esteemed in successful cases of TBCD from the early 1990s through the early 2000s. The original hospitality of TBCD can be considered to stem from the social capital of the community which practiced TBCD. Since the 2000s, however, many cases of TBCD have begun to adopt the techniques of “service management” utilized as “hospitality management” in the business scene. Such confusion of service and hospitality might cause the loss of the original hospitality act in TBCD. Thus, this paper concludes that the hospitality of residents should first be distinguished from the service that tourist industry employees provide, and then to improve the original hospitality for TBCD, its implementation should be focused on the construction of the social capital within the community.