Pop culture tourism: A perspective from Japan

Consumers who patronize pop culture would desire to connect with it and therefore tend to travel to destinations related to that culture. This is referred to as "pop culture tourism." Among various genres, such as movies, TV dramas, music, games, animes, and so on, movies were the major topic of research interest in the 1990s, and thereafter, TV Drama since 2000. This was largely due to the Korean Wave that became popular throughout Asia and beyond during that time. Meanwhile, the impact of anime on tourism has been mainly studied in Japan. Since there were only a few studies on the differences between the genres, this study attempts to bridge this gap through a literature review in this field. The findings reveal some similarities and differences in tourists' motivations, experiences, and the like, across genres. Several issues that need to be discussed in the future are also mentioned.