| In order for a tourist destination to become an established stop on Japanese travel itineraries, it must first be widely known and acknowledged within Japan as an important site, incorporating the Japanese concept of meibutsu, literally "fame-things". An essential aspect of Japanese travel is acquiring evidence of having visited sites highly valued within the Japanese social context. Validation is achieved by bringing back gifts, photographs and souvenirs that both symbolize the meibutsu aspects of the sites themselves, and provide evidence of the tourist's having visited them.;Since the early 1970s Banff, Alberta has increasingly attracted a large number of Japanese tourists. This thesis is an exploration of the process through which Banff became a preferred Japanese tourist destination, achieving the status of meibutsu. Socio-economic aspects are analysed from the perspective of "push" factors deriving from within Japan and "pull" factors emanating from the tourist destination region. The catalyst appears to be culturally sophisticated media programs presenting elements of Banff in a manner specifically tailored for a Japanese audience.;Elements of Giddens' structuration theory are applied in a preliminary attempt to analyse the "unintended consequences of action" and use the "dialectic of control" as an explanatory model for anthropological research in tourism. The "structuration" of Japanese tourism in Banff is conceived as a dialectic between marketing experts, via manipulation of media resources, and potential tourists. |
