Thoughts on a Blueprint for “Tourismology” －Tracing the Curriculum of Departments of Tourism at Four-year Universities in Japan－

Abstract

How should we create a blueprint for “tourismology”? In this paper I have tried to create such a blueprint by tracing the curriculum of departments of tourism at four-year universities in Japan. An interesting finding is that certain courses are more frequently taught at the six universities which have departments of tourism. For example the five courses: Introduction to Tourism, Tourism Business, Tourism Geography, Hospitality Management, and Tourism Destination Development, are taught at all of the universities. These courses are the central elements in a blueprint for “tourismology”. Furthermore, the seventeen courses which are all taught at at least three of the departments may be grouped into four general areas, leading us to the working hypothesis that the study of tourism is organized into these academic areas: (1) Introduction to tourism study (comprising courses covering tourism in general, tourism business, and research methodology), (2) Tourism study based on the social sciences, (3) Tourism study from the point of view of engineering approaches to regional development, (4) Tourism study from the point of view of business administration.