Under the warm and sunny autumn weather, the Frontier Center for Tourism Science hosted the kick-off symposium on November 21st both on-site and on-line. It was attended by over 130 people. The first part of the symposium received celebrations form the president of Kanazawa University, the mayor of Kanazawa City, chair of tourism promotion of Ishikawa Prefecture, executive vice president of Japan National Tourism Organization, chair of Hokuriku Economic Federation Tourism Committee, and director of the FCTS. The newly created center was warmly welcomed by these organizations and attendees.
The second part invited four key professionals in a broad range of fields, including data sciences in Japan, folklore and cultural study in the US, national tourism organization, and the travel industry. Dr. Michael Dylan Foster at the University of California – Davis offered a video speech, Tourism and Heritage from Local and Global Perspectives, and discussed positive and negative impacts on intangible cultural heritages in a tourism context based on his longitudinal research in Japan. Dr. Tetsuo Shimizu at Tokyo Metropolitan University described the similarities and differences between his department and an expected department at Kanazawa University and spoke his research practices and application to the tourism industry along Tourism and Transportation Data Sciences.
Following to these keynote speeches, a panel discussion was undertaken by Mr. Kyoji Kuramochi at JNTO, Ryo Osera at Kabuk Style Inc., Dr. Tetsuo Shimizu at TMU, and Dr. Hikaru Samuta at FCTS, which was facilitated by a journalist and caster, Ms. Lisa Kuwahara. The discussion centered around the potential of tourism practices for community sustainability and contributions that sciences and research can make to the tourism industry. The center was well acknowledged its function to become a ‘center’ of tourism sciences in Japan and beyond.
