Religious tourism and World Heritage
Registration Movement in Nagasaki,
Japan
MATSUI Keisuke
(University of Tsukuba)
Purpose
Heritage tourism is one of the attractive types of
urban tourism; in particular, registration as a World
Cultural Heritage site has a powerful effect on the
tourism market.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss various aspects
of this type of tourism. By showing the process of
creating new heritage tourism using Catholic churches,
I will examine the cultural impact of heritage tourism
and some problems associated with commodification
of churches.
Background of the study (1/3)
Economic impact of tourism in Japan
travel expenditure: 200.9 billion € （≒Toyota）
job creation ripple effect: 4.06 million people
• Revitalization of local economy in terms of
tourism is a crucial issue.
• Competition among cities has been increasing.
Background of the study (2/3)
- Urban and heritage tourism-
City’s culture and history, often related to city’s
identity has been used as a tourism resource.
Big Buddha in the suburbs Tokyo
Urban heritage tourism
Background of the study (3/3)
-World Heritage as a tourism resource-
Registration for World Cultural Heritage is effective
means to create city’s culture/history tourist attractions.
• World Heritage site boom
• Expectation for a positive
impact on the local
economy
•
Case study: Nagasaki Pref.
⇒ World Heritage
Tentative List in 2007
Japan has 11 Cultural and 3 natural in 2010
Study area (1/2)：Geography of Nagasaki
• westernmost part of Kyusyu Isl.
• local capital : Nagasaki City (port city)
population :440 thousand
• window to foreign countries
(17c-19c)
• damage of atomic bomb
(09/08/1945)
Study area (2/2) ：Characteristics of Nagasaki
・67 thousand of Catholics
（4%of the population）
・Number of church:135
・History : 460 years
Distribution of Catholic Believers
Ratio of Catholic Believers
Excellent?
Magnificent?
Long history?
Why and how were these churches
in Nagasaki used as tourism resources?
Dynamics of tourism in Nagasaki area (1/2)
-decline of tourists and tourism consumption-
Decrease of visitors
Decrease of visitors’ expense
Dynamics of tourism in Nagasaki area (2/2)
-change of the structure of tourismthousand people
Rapid declining of
school excursion
End of mass tourism
Nagasaki is obliged to create
the attractive tourism resources
(especially, cultural heritage tourism for the elderly)
→ The conclusion is to create “Catholic tourism”.
What is the value of Nagasaki Churches ?
1) Historic and cultural value：
history（golden age/hardship/ revival）
⇒ especially, tradition of hidden Christian
2) Aesthetic and artistic value：
fusion of western culture and traditional
Japanese techniques
3) Cultural landscape value：
location of the churches
Main actors of Catholic tourism creators
producer
Local government,
Tourism industries,
Catholic, Scholars,
Media ・・・
Believers,
Catholic,
local residents
Host
guest
Tourists,
pilgrims
Producer: creation of pilgrimages: Christianity as a tourism resources
1）Local government: Department of Tourism & the board of Education
→Preserve as cultural heritage and also use as tourism resources
2）Nagasaki Tourism Association
：the commercial promotion of “Christian tours ”
→the developments of high value-added
3) Nagasaki Catholic Archbishop
：The creation of ‘Nagasaki Pilgrimage’
→guide books，Pilgrimage tourism centre，model course
←
The Nagasaki Christian
tour pamphlet
→
The official guide of
Nagasaki pilgrimage
What is the process of creating Nagasaki pilgrimage?
Existence of mediator and facilitator
１）Activities of mediators：finding value
→media・artists・photographer・scholars（1995～）
２） Activities of facilitators：perceiving value and marking
→local people, Association of World Heritage
３）Registration of tentative list（Jan.2007）
→ local government: separation of state and religion
First beatification in Japan held （Nov. 2008）
Creation of Nagasaki pilgrimage
What is the concept of Nagasaki pilgrimage?
The concept :
both high-class-oriented and high-value-added
The central aim is to create a new pilgrimage route and
contributes to the promotion of tourism in Nagasaki
Concrete action;
Selecting pilgrimage sites, publicising pilgrimage styles,
creating an official guidebook, publishing a pilgrim map
‘Camino de Santiago’ model
What is created as Nagasaki pilgrimage？
Story ：the value of pilgrimage
１）Construction of the story：official guidebook
→historical（Christianity）・cultural value（architecture）
→mythology：story of martyrdom, tragedy and persecution
２） Construction of the form ：actual conditions of
pilgrimage
→logotype, official guide, pilgrimage style
３）Promotion：commodification of pilgrimage
→publicity to travel agents
＊However, tourism infrastructure?
Impact of heritage tourism（1/5） Preservation
１）Registration of cultural properties：
restoration and preservation
→also physical damage
Impact of heritage tourism (2/5)
-Adding new value-
２）Adding new values to the Nagasaki church group
→ Gaze for Nagasaki Christian has changed
New values (artistic, architectural, cultural, historic, socioeconomic…）gain authority from being a World Heritage
candidate.
The Church will become a social symbol that will
provide actual substance to ‘culture’ and ‘history’.
The landscape of churches recalls collective memories.
Impact of heritage tourism（3/5,4/5）
3) themeparkization
or cataloguization
of the places
→many visitors are forced to understand
‘the right story’
→placelessness
4) As Christian history has become public memory,
the local history of Nagasaki has been updated
and restructured conveniently.
→inconvenient truth was concealed
Impact of heritage tourism（5/5）
5) Risk of instant creation of city identity
→ different identities for the city have produced
continuously and instantly.
media space, cyber space
Website of tourism association
Sightseeing brochure
Official guidebooks
→Continuous discovery of resources
→No actual situation, but created later
→No need to be afraid of failure
→New ”identities” are being made one after
another
Concluding remarks
• cultural impact of heritage tourism.
both decreasing visitors and income
find new tourism
• The characteristics of Catholic tourism in Nagasaki
World Heritage as marking
clarify City identity creating the story
• However, we must consider both positive and negative
aspects of the impact of tourism.