HSI Report: Feline Tourism
University News | August 02, 2021

Posters depicting Station Master Tama, at Wakayama station (Photo: Johan R.
Edelheim).

The course Feline Tourism: The wonders of travelling to cats,
travelling for cats, cats that are travelling, and cat hospitality washeld between June 28, 2021 and July 9, 2021, as part of the Hokkaido
Summer Institute (HSI). This is the first time that a course on this
topic was organized at the HSI. The course was conceived as part of the
field of Tourism Studies. Tourism Studies is an interdisciplinary fieldthat is crucial to understanding how tourism shapes diverse facets ofculture, society and economics; its significance has become all themore apparent in this era of the pandemic, which has adverselyaffected tourism.

The course was coordinated by Professor Johan R. Edelheim, Research
Faculty of Media and Communication, Hokkaido University, and wasalso instructed by Dr. Émilie Crossley, JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow,
Research Faculty of Media and Communication, Hokkaido University
and Dr. Cecilia de Bernardi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Mid Sweden
University. Field visits were an integral part of the course. As thecourse was online, virtual field trips to cat attractions and service
providers connected to cats were organised in advance of the course.

From the left: Professor Johan R. Edelheim, Dr. Cecilia de Bernardi and Dr. Émilie
Crossley, who organised and instructed the course.

Although the name Feline Tourism may make the field seem frivolousor flippant, it is an important area of research: cats are an integral partof human lives and society, and by extension, tourism. Feline tourism
has never before been explored in a university course, according toEdelheim. His goal in conducting this course was to create a framework
for the study of feline tourism, designing the course from the verybasics — as the first course of its kind in the world, the course functions
as an archetype for others. Crossley was interested in the crossover
between feline tourism and fox-related tourism, while de Bernardi wasbrought on board as pet tourism is one of her research themes.
“Coming from an European country, I find the phenomenon of‘Japanese cat attractions’, extremely fascinating and I wanted to findout, among other things, why cats are so immensely popular inJapanese culture,” said Noëlle Sommer, a participant in the course whois pursuing a Research Master in Linguistics and Communication
Sciences at Radboud University, the Netherlands. “I am a huge catlover, and when I lived in Japan as part of an undergraduate study
abroad program I did in the 2018-2019 Fall Semester, I visited as manycat attractions as possible. I felt that this course would have theanswers I was looking for.”

Sanjuroichi, Cat Lord of Bitchū Matsuyama Castle, in Takahashi, Okayama
Prefecture, surveying the ticket office (Photo: Johan R. Edelheim).

The course was meticulously planned and organised. 20 students
enrolled in the course, and every one of them was sent a print version
of a detailed study guide for the course. The course was conducted overeight 90-minute sessions, including the introductory session and thefinal student presentations. Student engagement was aligned withregular visual assignments which were incorporated into the sessions.
The course took a tourism-centered approach to feline tourism,
providing a theoretical framework and addressing
ethics, kawaii culture, the role of cats, cat hospitality and cat
aesthetics. This was an implementation of multispecies research: thestudy of relationships between humans and other species from theviewpoints of all participants in the relationships.

Kenshin Nishio, a first-year Master student at the Division of Quantum
Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido
University was interested in the course as it dealt with cats — a feature
shared by all the students who enrolled in the course, as well as theinstructors. “I could learn how tourism is studied, which I have neverstudied before, and I could (virtually) visit a cat cafe,” he said. “It was agood opportunity for me to think about cat cafes in a way I had neverthought about them before.”
Edelheim had taught some courses in tourism at the HSI prior tojoining Hokkaido University in 2019. He and de Bernardi are currently
writing a paper on cat hotels, which was an influence for this course.
Crossley has worked together on tourism education with Edelheim, sothe course was a natural fit for her. Inspired by this course, de Bernardi
has proposed a short course on animal tourism at Mid SwedenUniversity.

Kishi Station, Wakayama Prefecture, the home of cat station master Tama and hissuccessors Nitama and Yontama (Photo: Johan R. Edelheim).

“Thanks to the course, I have gained a new perspective regarding theethics surrounding cats as mascots,” said Haruka Kasuga, a first-year
doctoral student at the Graduate School of Information Science andTechnology, Hokkaido University. “The course was of especial interest
to me as it is closely related to my doctoral research: I study companion
animals, focusing on dogs and cats, and felt that the perspective theHSI course would provide is invaluable.”
The course will be held in future instalments of the HSI. As this was thefirst time the course was held, there are many improvements to be
made. One of the most significant is adapting the course to students
from a wide array of disciplines. The instructors also hope to expand
outside a classroom setting by publishing a book on Feline Tourism. In
addition, they have observed that service providers in the pet
hospitality industry did not see themselves as part of the tourism
industry. Research in this field may help with developing strategies toaddress issues that arise at this intersection.
To receive information about HSI 2022, please sign up for areminder here.
Written by Sohail Keegan Pinto