About the Summit

About the Summit

The Popular Culture Tourism Stakeholders Summit (PCTSS) is an international professional gathering that brings together scholars, creators, policymakers, and tourism industry professionals to explore the dynamic relationships between popular culture and tourism. The summit focuses on the intersections of content-driven creative industries and place-making practices, emphasizing collaborations across academia, industry, and civil society. Launched in 2024 in Kure, Japan, the summit is not only an academic event but also a transdisciplinary platform where local governments, researchers, and fans engage in dialogue around real-world challenges and cultural development through popular culture and tourism.

Organizing Committee

• Dr Kyungjae Jang (Hiroshima University, Japan)

Dr Jang is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University. He holds a PhD and MA in tourism studies from Hokkaido University. Dr. Jang has conducted participatory research on transnational popular culture and tourism in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

• Dr Sangkyun Kim (Edith Cowan University, Australia)

Dr Kim is Professor of Tourism and Creative Industries and Deputy Head of School of Business & Law (SBL) Centre for Tourism Research at Edith Cowan University in Australia. His main research area is on the close relationships between tourism and popular culture, with particular attention to tourism and popular media, media representation, celebrity cultures, and fan pilgrimage and local community. His work is international and interdisciplinary at the boundaries of social psychology, cultural studies, media studies and tourism geographies. Professor Kim is a world leading scholar of film tourism.

• Dr Timo Thelen (Kanazawa University, Japan)

Dr Thelen is Associate Professor at the Faculty of International Studies in Kanazawa University. He has studied Japanese studies and cultural anthropology in Dusseldorf and Tokyo. His research focuses on media, tourism and rural culture. His first monograph Revitalization and Internal Colonialism in Rural Japan (Routledge) was released in 2022. 

• Dr Takayoshi Yamamura (Hokkaido University, Japan)

Dr Yamamura is a Professor in the Center for Advanced Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University. He is one of the pioneers of contents tourism and anime-induced tourism studies in Japan. He has served as the Chair of several governmental advisory boards, such as the Meeting of International Tourism Promotion through Animation Contents of The Japan Tourism Agency. His recent works in English include War as Entertainment and Contents Tourism in Japan (with Philip Seaton, Routledge, 2022), Contents Tourism and Pop Culture Fandom (with Philip Seaton, Channel View Publications, 2020).

Organizers

• Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS), Hokkaido University, Japan

• Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan

• School of Business & Law Centre for Tourism Research (SBLCTR), Edith Cowan University, Australia

• Faculty of International Studies, Kanazawa University, Japan

• Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association

Scientific Committee

• Chair: A/Prof Timo Thelen (PhD), Kanazawa University, Japan 

• Dr Deborah Castro (PhD), University of Groningen, The Netherland

• A/Prof Kyungjae Jang (PhD), Hiroshima University, Japan

• Prof Sangkyun Kim (PhD), Edith Cowan University, Australia 

• A/Prof Shu-Ying Lin (PhD), National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Taiwan

• Prof Christine Lundberg (PhD), University of Stavanger, Norway

• Prof Stijn Reijnders (PhD), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands 

• A/Prof Bongkosh N. Rittichainuwat (PhD), International Program in Hotel and Tourism Management, Siam University, Thailand

• Prof Takayoshi Yamamura (PhD), Hokkaido University, Japan

Members include international scholars and practitioners in the fields of:

• Popular culture and media studies

• Tourism management and marketing

• Tourism geographies and regional studies

• Heritage studies

• Creative industries

• Cultural policy and local governance