TokyoTomo Travel Guide

During a presentation of its sales promotion held on January 20, Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) unveiled that it set a goal of achieving 300,000 Japanese visitor arrivals for the year 2010. With the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games just around the corner attracting Japan’s travel market, Canadian Tourism Commission aims to address a revitalization of its travel market under the theme “Again, To Canada!” Hiroshi Sawabe, Director of VWC 20 Million Traveler Promotion Office at JATA, was emphatic that the customer need changed significantly from the time it was 20 years ago and he hoped the travel industry will join forces to jointly start to produce new package tours featuring Canada right from scratch, capitalizing on its excellent travel materials, infrastructure for FIT and reputation for safety in an effort to position Canada as one of the main destinations for Japanese.

The number of Japanese visitor arrivals in Canada is expected to decline to approximately 200,000 for 2009. The peak came during 1996 when some 650,000 Japanese travelers visited Canada. Commenting on the target set for 300,000 visitor arrivals, Anthony Rippingale, General Manager Japan at Canadian Tourism Commission said, “It is a realistic target,” giving the following reasons: 1) the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games will help increase Canada’s media exposure and its market perception, 2) within the travel industry, Canada’s recognition as a strategic destination by the Visit World Campaign (VWC) in autumn 2009 will enhance new product development, 3) Air Canada (AC) will start Narita/Calgary service from March, increasing its overall seat capacity and 4) the strong Japanese yen and increasing domestic demand in Japan’s market.

As the future marketing strategy, Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) will put the first priority on its sales approach to the Japanese travel industry, organizing seminars and workshops and, besides it will also offer Canada Specialist Program (CSP) for free, targeting the sales and planning staff. In terms of approaching consumers in general, CTC aims to promote package products by theme and FIT through its website while upgrading travel contents of the regular package tours such as Vancouver, Canadian Rockies, and Toronto with Niagara Falls and Maple Route.

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