Hometowns as Tourism Destinations

―Transition and Authenticity of the Concept of Hometown―

Abstract

The paper aims to clarify the nature of “tourism with hometowns as destinations” by focusing on the transition of the hometown into a tourist destination and analyzing it from the perspective of authenticity. In recent years, the concept of hometown has been utilized in policies aimed at regional revitalization. However, visiting one’s hometown has not been clarified in tourism studies. Therefore, this paper examines the concept of hometown from three perspectives: “ancestral tourism,” which focuses on travelers visiting their ancestral lands, “furusato tourism,” which is based on the image of traditional Japan, and a relational framework. Subsequently, “hometown tourism” is a phenomenon born out of an overlap between ancestral and furusato tourism. Hometown tourism connects travelers and their hometowns in a new way.