[Seminar] Critical reflections on tourism sustainability from the angles of natural heritage, visitor management, and overtourism

This seminar will provide a platform to critically engage and reflect on World Heritage management, visitor management and overtourism issues, and limitations of current tourism sustainability approaches. In the first part, internationally recognized sustainable tourism scholars Prof. Brent Lovelock and Dr. Anna Carr of Otago University will present their latest research insights on the above topic and Dr. Adam Doering of Wakayama University will coordinate a fluid discussion/reflection also engaging the audience. In the latter half, coordinated by Dr. Abhik Chakraborty of Wakayama University, presentations by Prof. Kumi Kato, Director of CTR (Shirakami Mountains World Heritage Site) and by Faculty of Tourism students (on Shiretoko Peninsula World Heritage Site) will be conducted, followed by a general discussion.

*No registration, no admission fee required

 

Theme

Critical reflections on tourism sustainability from the angles of natural heritage, visitor management, and overtourism

Overview

Tourism in natural heritage areas can provide the benefit of heightening awareness of natural environments but can also result in fresh pressure on vulnerable ecosystems and natural resources. Especially in the case of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, sudden increase of tourists after the registration and the capacity of local management institutions have been criticized for bringing yet more pressure on the natural environment. In addition overtourism has become a serious problem in several iconic destinations, and this situation calls for urgent research on destination capacity, monitoring and trade-off between tourism and conservation. This seminar will introduce several cases from Japan and other countries to reflect on this situation and discuss possible research pathways for managing natural heritage landscapes.

Date

Thursday, April 11

Time

15:00~18:00

Venue

Multimedia Room, Wakayama University Library

Program

Section 1. (15:00-16:20)

Two presentations by Dr. Brent Lovelock and Dr. Anna Carr and a discussion on the issues raised by them.
It will be coordinated by Dr. Adam Doering; in a manner that allows spontaneous feedback and brainstorming.

 

Break (16:20-16:30)

 

Section 2 (16:30-18:00)

A presentation by Dr. Kato on Shirakami Mountains WNHS, and 3 short presentations by 3rd year students of Faculty of Tourism who visited Shiretoko to assist Dr. Abhik Chakraborty’s research project on natural heritage management and ecotourism in the area, plus discussion.
Dr. Abhik Chakraborty will coordinate this session, and may add some inputs from his research project.

This session will be in Japanese.

Speakers

• Prof. Brent Lovelock, Otago University
• Dr. Anna Carr, Otago University
• Prof. Kumi Kato, Wakayama University
• Ms. Natsuki Owase, Ms. Natsumi Koike and Ms. Michiru Nakamura (Students of Faculty of Tourism)

Coordinators

• Dr. Adam Doering, Wakayama University
• Dr. Abhik Chakraborty, Wakayama University

Contact

Dr. Abhik Chakraborty
Faculty of Tourism, Wakayama University

E-mail£º *Click here to the Contact page.