Fantasy curiosity: a new theoretical perspective to understand anime pilgrimage

Curiosity stands as a significant driving force in comprehending tourist behaviour. Nonetheless, within the realm of anime pilgrims, the objects of interest, the underlying mechanisms and the resulting behaviours stemming from their curiosity deviate notably from those exhibited by typical tourists. Through the utilization of in-depth case studies of anime pilgrims, this research unveils an innovative impetus for tourism known as ‘fantasy curiosity’ with four distinct attributes, differentiating it from prevailing conceptualizations of general curiosity. Moreover, by utilizing a Latent Dirichlet Allocation model, we pinpoint distinct characteristics of anime-related behaviours across different phases of anime tours. These findings serve to propel the progression of research within the realms of tourism motivations, while concurrently broadening the horizons of curiosity theory.