TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Hiroshi Mizohata, Commissioner of Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), expressed his resolve at the regular press meeting on January 27 to take any action necessary to achieve the goal of 10 million foreign visitors to Japan in 2010. The year 2009 ended with 6.79 million visitors, down 19 percent from the year earlier, so it needs a 47 percent boost in order to attain 10 million in 2010 as outlined in the Tourism Nation Promotion Basic Plan. He remarked, “It is numerically a hefty aim, but I do not think it infeasible as we have made a fresh start.” As means of fulfilling the objective, he unveiled his plan to conduct an aggressive promotion at four staple markets of Korea, China, Taiwan, and Hon Kong.

He is of the opinion that it is essential to make effective campaigns at these markets making the best use of the earmarked budget whose appropriation has more than tripled. He is eager to address the alleviation of the restriction on individual tourist visa for Chinese nationals and the leveling-off of peak travel seasons. It is also on his agenda to promote sports tours relating to baseball and football, and the talks with the relevant associations are reportedly under way.

The individual tourist visas issued to Chinese nationals numbered 7,689 for the six-month time from last July to the end of the year. They are reckoned, therefore, to be hardly in excess of 20,000 on yearly basis as most of the travelers still come in groups. From the viewpoint of increasing visa issuance, it is essential to ease the qualification for individual tourist visa application, and the working team for inbound travel at Tourism Nation Promotion Headquarters is requesting early implementation of the relaxation. While the ministries concerned insist the necessity of setting a minimum income level of those individuals, the working team demands to get rid of such limitation. As for the implementation schedule, the team members say that, since they are unable to go ahead without consent from those ministries, the new regulations would not be ready before January but should be in time for the start of Shanghai Expo.

Source: Travel Vision

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