TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) has set the “Japan MICE Year” going in full swing from April. This special year was conceived along with the MICE Action Plan drawn up last July in the framework of “30 Million Foreign Visitors Project.” With the start of a new fiscal year in April, numerous programs and events are scheduled in line with the JTA’s MICE promotion initiative.

As a new undertaking, JTA implements skill-training programs at home and abroad targeting staff of MICE-related organizations and corporations with a view to developing personnel resources for MICE solicitation and operations. In overseas, it encourages the staff working for convention bureaus and professional congress organizers (PCO) to take part in short training sessions hosted by MICE-oriented international institutions, or send them to such institutions, convention bureaus, and PCOs for a period of a few months or half a year, under the “overseas training scheme,” for the purpose of getting them on-the-job training to acquire professional knowledge for bringing MICE to Japan. At home, JTA is going to hold training sessions in Tokyo and Osaka, inviting lecturers from international institutions. As such arrangements are now in the finalizing process, it will put out a call for interested parties at the end of May and then get each program started.

JTA plans to set up a booth at seven major MICE fairs in the world to present Japan as a MICE-hosting country. Especially at IMEX, the world- largest MICE fair held in Frankfurt at the end of May, it will occupy a space of 203 square meters, tripling the size of the previous year. It wants to impress MICE planners or specialists of the world that Japan is keen to attract MICE from overseas.

On July 14, JTA hosts a symposium at Osaka ATC Hall in commemoration of the Japan MICE Year, to which guest speakers from some international organizations will be invited to discuss strategies for MICE solicitation. Concurrently, a trade show will be held for local convention bureaus to participate in as exhibitors.

Source: Travel Vision

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