Tourist Performance and Heritagization

―The Case of the Photo Exhibition in Bibai―

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the influence of performances by "related tourists" who have lived in the area before and remember it, on the images of other tourists and tourist sites, using the photo exhibition held at the coal mine heritage site in Bibai, Hokkaido. Their performances assisted other tourists in their viewing perspective and reconstructed the image of the tourist site as a space for nostalgia for the past. Not only do these performances contribute to the collective memory of the community, but they may also be positioned as part of heritagization, the process by which memories and values associated with heritage are represented and transformed.