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ABSTRACT
The current study is an exploration to examine older Japanese individuals’ motivations for travel. The study employed an open-ended survey and in-depth interviews in order to gain insight into the creation of human relationships through tourism. Our results show that tourism is perceived as offering extraordinary opportunities to meet new people, and to form and develop new relationships by Japanese older individuals, who experience fewer opportunities to interact with other people in their everyday lives compared to individuals in younger generations. In particular, distinct features of tourism settings, such as liminality and touristic communitas, allow older tourists to express themselves more freely by escaping from their existing relationships as well as from many social norms, hierarchies, and prohibitions.
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Notes on contributors
Eunju Ryu
At the time of writing this paper, Eunju Ryu was a lecturer at the Department of Tourism, Rikkyo University, 1-2-26 Kitano, Niiza-shi, Saitama Japan 352–8558. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow with BK21 Plus Program, Jeju National University, 102 Jejudaehak-ro, Jeju-si, Jeju-do, 690-756, Korea (E-mail: [email protected]).
Sunghyup Sean Hyun
Sunghyup Sean Hyun is Associate Professor, Department of Tourism and Convention, Pusan National University, Jangjeon-Dong, San 30, Kumjung-Gu, Busan 609–735 Korea (E-mail: [email protected]).
Changsup Shim
Changsup Shim, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Istanbul Studies Center, Kadir Has University, D-Block, 2nd Floor, Room 020, Kadir Has Street, Cibali, Istanbul 34083, Turkey (E-mail: [email protected]).