FROM EXPOSURE TO TRAVEL BEHAVIOR: EXPLAINING ANIME TOURISM DRIVERS THROUGH A PROCESS-BASED SEQUENTIAL MEDIATION FRAMEWORK IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

“Anime Tourism” has emerged as a growing niche, within the cultural tourism context, through which media consumption may convert into tourism intention. In spite of the global expansion of “Anime Culture”, little exploration has investigated its potential to tourism development in developing countries such as Pakistan. While considering it, present study’s object is to explore the key behavioral drivers of anime tourism through a process-based sequential mediation conceptual framework, linking: anime watching frequency, event participation, cultural perception, and emotional attachment towards tourism intent. To rationalize the proposed framework, an exploratory secondary data is employed, publicly available “Anime Dataset 2022” containing 18,495 explanations from the “Anime Planet” platform against 17 variables at Kaggle and adopts an exploratory analytical perspective to interpret anime industry trends in relation to tourism behavior. The use of non-experimental quantitative research designs (Descriptive, comparative, and correlational) was adopted to analyze tendencies in anime productions, consumption by audience, media formats used, and thematic multiplicity. According to the results, there is a significant increase in the production of anime globally; at the same time, audience positively perceive episodic formats and broad themes. Such engagement suggests favorable conditions for repeated exposure, fan involvement, and emotional connection. These patterns provide contextual support for the proposed pathway, sequential mediation framework, through which anime consumption may translate into tourism intention. The contribution of the present study is the identification of anime tourism beyond the traditional one and introducing a process-based framework relevant to emerging tourism markets. While practically implementing its findings offers strategic insight for policymakers and tourism stakeholders seeking to leverage anime related cultural tourism in Pakistan.