A Study to Determine the Impact of Movies on Travel Intention: Anime Movies and Japan Sample

Abstract

The link between film/drama-induced tourism and purchase intention has been studied for a long while. By using the Internet to promote the destination apart from cinema hall and television, cost-efficient promotion tools were shaped. Anime consisting of digital drawing techniques has been one of the most remarkable examples in terms of promotion of destination and culture as well. In this paper, to evaluate the travel intention of watchers in Turkish anime forums to Japan, open ended questions based on the model of purchase intention were presented to members and followers in two popular anime forums via the Internet. The responses of 31 participants were analyzed. The results demonstrated that participants' purchase intention has been enhanced as the consequence of watching anime series. Keywords: film tourism, anime tourism, travel intention IntroductionAfter the Industrial Revolution which was generated in the second half of the 18th century, technological developments have spread all around the world from European countries especially starting from the first quarter of the 20th century. One of these developments, the World Wide Web, was used primarily for military communications during the first years of cold war. At the end of the 1980s, commercial internet service providers were developed and finally in the 1990s, internet has become open to personal usage. As a result of those developments which happened until today, changes have been realized at web-based marketing applications as well. From tourism aspect, it is observed that those applications include web advertisements, movies, TV series and cartoons. The development of technology has implied popular new trends such as movies and TV series. Diversification of cartoon production has created anime movies which not only excite the attention of kids but also of adults. As the continuation of manga, published as books and magazines, animations of Japanese cartoon characters have been broadcasted first on TV channels and then on the internet, so anime productions original to Japan have been developed. In Japanese anime movies, cultural elements of Japan like kimono (traditional costume), sushi (traditional food), sake (national drink), tea ceremony, ikebana (flower growing), or origami (art of paper folding) can be seen. Besides using cultural elements, since the 2000s, anime production companies have showed touristic destinations that anime fans would like to visit, by using photos of real venues as background of the anime with benefits of developing digital techniques (Jang, 2015). Accordingly, a new term "Anime Pilgrim" has been created by anime fans. As a result of digital developments, the opportunity to reach information rapidly stimulates people's sense of wonder and affects purchase intention in tourism sector. As sense of wonder becomes more effective, changes occur in promotion operations. Especially, it is observed that researchers have realized how travel intentions are forming the tendency of touristic behavior of individuals or masses. Kotler ...