TokyoTomo Travel Guide

At the Fifth Trilateral Tourism Ministers’ Meeting among the People’s Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea held from August 21 at Hangzhou, China, a joint statement was issued to declare that the three nations endeavor to expand trilateral human exchange to the scale of 26 million people in 2015. In line with the meeting’s theme – “Toward the future, comprehensive cooperation and common prosperity” – the joint statement underlined the following four points: (1) to dynamize tourism industry in the broad spectrum and promote mutual development among the three nations, (2) to invigorate tourism exchange and cooperation, (3) to establish a strong tourism framework in East Asia, and (4) to deal with ecology issues from global point of view.

Regarding the point (1), the three governments agreed that each nation should give priority to tourism industry’s development and see to it that the industry’s status be upgraded continually. Each government acknowledges, the communiqué says, that tourism brings about enormous economic ripple effects leading to greater employment opportunities, yet with relatively small consumption of natural resources; hence, each government gears up to make the most of the growth of tourism. It is also agreed that continued trilateral cooperation should be directed to build up ever-growing tourism industry so that peoples of these nations can reap tangible benefits from the tourism exchange and mutual cooperation.

With reference to the point (3), three ministers were in accord on activated joint promotion for better services in the tourism industry, stepped-up two-way traffic, simplification and speed-up of visa issuance procedures and immigration formalities, and cooperation for tapping fresh tourism resources in such fields as medicine, sports, and culture. The tasks of human resource development and effective information transmission were also discussed.

Further, in connection with the point (4), the statement pledged the governments would make utmost efforts to protect global ecology by joint study of environmental fallouts stemmed from development of tourism industry and to heighten awareness of ecology issues on the part of tourists as well as travel business executives. At the meeting, “Joint Proposal on Low-Carbon Tourism among the People’s Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea” was adopted to enhance awareness of carbon emission issue and to grapple with its minimization.

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German National Tourism Office hosted the 13th “German Messe Workshop” on August 19, accompanied by round-table discussions and seminars sponsored by trade show representatives stationed in Japan. Germany is home of approximately 140 international trade shows during the course of a year, the most in number in the world, and receives over 170,000 exhibitors, a half of which is from outside Germany. Akira Nishiyama, director marketing for Japan, emphasizes that attending the shows in Germany is more than a matter of business contracts, it will afford a market research opportunities including watch over the world-leading companies’ behavior and the latest industrial trend as Germany offers “a platform” of trade shows the world over. The German National Tourist Office takes the trouble to pass the relevant information on to Japanese travel agencies so that they explore the corporate needs to attend the trade shows, and eventually both agencies and corporations partake of the benefits of getting new business.

In the world ranking of trade shows in terms of exhibition space, four of the international trade shows held in Germany make the top six. Notably, about 20 percent of visitors are from outside Europe. Thus, in the number of exhibitors and the number of foreign visitors, German shows excels others and much more so because world-leading businesses take part in them as exhibitors, showing latest technologies and unique ideas. Moreover, recent shows are becoming specialized and selective in each field rather than general and comprehensive; therefore, many Japanese corporations will find them productive for sales and marketing. Japanese representatives of those trade shows are willing to organize inspection tours or plant tours on behalf of Japanese visitors as may be required. In Cologne where food industry is thriving, for instance, technical visits to local confectionaries can be arranged, or in Berlin where electronics and railway technologies stand at the forefront, plant tours can be organized for 10 to 30 people or more. Since inter-city trains are highly developed, it is possible to combine sightseeing tours to nearby locations.

It is recommendable for travel agencies to make in-depth study of any specific fields in relation with trade shows and conduct thorough marketing to determine which industries to approach. That is the way to explore markets and promote trade show business, says the German National Tourist Office.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

“Survey 2009 on Tourists Visiting Tokyo” released from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported that foreign visitors to Tokyo in 2009 numbered 4,760,000, down 10.8 percent from the previous year. Their travel consumption fell 15.9 percent to 281.6 billion yen year on year, with per capita spending (of those staying overnight) registering 98,979 yen, down by 10,768 yen. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government assumes that the global financial crisis since late 2008, persistent yen appreciation, and the breakout of new strain of flu pushed down the figures significantly. Foreign visitors comprise only 1.1 percent of all tourists to Tokyo, but it should be noted that their travel spending constitutes 7 percent of the total.

On the other hand, Japanese visitors to Tokyo were 416 million, down 2.2 percent, of which residents outside Tokyo were 183 million, down 10.1 percent, while Tokyo residents who had made a day trip were 230 million, up 5.2 percent, bringing the total number of Japanese visitors to the almost equal level a year ago. As far as travel consumption is concerned, total spending of Tokyo residents slid 4.2 percent to 1.64 trillion yen, while that of non-Tokyo residents dropped 16.2 percent to 2.03 trillion yen. Economic ripple effect stemmed from Japanese and non-Japanese visitors is estimated to have declined 11.5 percent to 8.7 trillion yen, and employment effect to have fallen 23.3 percent to 430,000 people. The economic ripple effect generated by tourism is said to account for 5.2 percent of the Tokyo’s production output.

Meanwhile, the part of town in Tokyo that is most pleasing to foreign visitors was Shinjuku (support rate: 18.6%), followed by Ginza (7.6%) and Asakusa (7.1%). Visitors from Asia were more attracted by Ginza and Odaiba, while visitors from Europe, North America, and Australia took a fancy to Shibuya.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.