Doraemon and snow white dreams come true: understanding cartoon pilgrimage travel motivations

There is increasing evidence that cartoon fans may make pilgrimages to cartoon sites where the displays are derived from popular plots, scenes, and characters. Through a phenomenological lens with data obtained from semi-structured interviews, this study reveals five travel motivations concerning the cartoon pilgrimage phenomenon, including heroism and princessism, nostalgia, plot framing, resonance between virtual and reality, and deep cultural learning. The present inquiry further contributes to the literature by illuminating a process leading from dreams, reverie, and fantasy manifested in the animated virtual world, to the reality realized through deep immersion and engrossment in the tourism space.