Poké-Tourism

A long time ago, I wrote a post on places that I might like to visit that are somehow linked to Pokémon (and one of those places might be the two-year post on this day, see below). Those places are fine and good, but they represent more or less my personal desires of places that I want to visit. There are many other places in the world that could and should be visited, but are not necessarily linked to Pokémon... and yet, perhaps they could be. That leads to the idea of "Poké-tourism", which I define as using Pokémon to promote tourism.

To some extent, this concept could be considered to be indirectly executed through the holding of the Pokémon World Championships in different cities, as well as the associated tournaments in all their different areas. By doing so, they become magnets for players to come and spend some time in that area, perhaps not just for the tournaments, but also to see the sights. This is what sometimes happens with gatherings of this nature, as I can attest with certain ones that I've been to; it's not hard to expect that this might happen for certain players or groups of them.

Less formally, it might be possible to take advantage of the phenomenon of Pokémon Go as something for promoting sights in an area. I've already wrote about this to a significant detail in a post about using the game to feature local establishments as well as its possible use as a tour guide. If this could be highly systematized and updated, it might not be too much of a stretch that the game can be used for tourism purposes, and perhaps majorly. It could also further help players to return playing the game, even more so with the aid of all the new features that have been introduced.

On a more organized level, some areas could declare that they themselves have or are affiliated with a certain distinctive Pokémon. It's similar to the official concept of region flowers or animals, as well as the semi-official food and tree, the difference in this case being a selected Pokémon species. And like region flowers, it may be possible to have regions that identify to the same Pokémon, and that may be perfectly fine; they then could be linked as "sister regions". Still, with more than 800 Pokémon and more on down the line in the upcoming eighth generation, it might take some time before this happens. This could make it appealing to tourists who are Pokémon fans as well.

Personally, I'm all for visiting any place around the world, provided there are available means and I'm able to do so. As a Pokémon fan, though, I can't help but think that some places may be made to have Pokémon connections, and they then would appeal to me and other Pokémon fans. This would be particularly specific and rather cult, but given that Pokémon is sufficiently popular, it may be just workable, enough that somehow tourism by and/or with Pokémon can be appreciated.

One year ago: Pokémon "Cover Songs"
Two years ago: Venice and Alto Mare