TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) announced that the number of Japanese outbound travelers during the month of April, 2010 increased by 0.9 percent year-on-year to 1,213,000 (preliminary figure), registering positive growth for two consecutive months, following the month of March. April last year, in spite of the outbreak of the H1N1 new influenza in the end of the month, recorded the first positive growth in two years. April this year also showed positive growth in spite of the closure of airports in Europe due to the volcano ashes and also the cancellation of tours to Bangkok, Thailand. The progress observed in the month of April can be considered as a robust one. The cumulative number of outbound travelers since January this year also rose by 3.4 percent to 5,330,000 compared to the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign visitor arrivals during the month of April this year surged significantly by 25.8% to 787,900, posting two-digit growth for five consecutive months since last December, according to JNTO. The strategic tourism markets for Japan, with the exception of United Kingdom, Germany and France, showed a vibrant increase. The visitor arrivals from Korea, China and Taiwan, in particular, jumped by 66.9 percent to 189,100, by 41.3 percent to 150,900 and by 20.2 percent to 109,700 respectively. Those from Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Russia and elsewhere showed two-digit increase as well.

The cumulative number of foreign visitor arrivals since January this year soared by 28.3 percent to 2,803,400 with all overseas markets enjoying a year-on-year increase. South Korea, in particular, posted a drastic increase of 72.0 percent to 788,300 compared to the year-ago period which had suffered a sharp decline in number.

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.

(JNTO) made public its plan to achieve 10 million foreign visitors to Japan in the recently released action plan for the fiscal 2010. In view of the FY2010 being the final year of the Visit Japan Campaign (VJC) project and at the same time the starting year in the first phase for the next goal of 30 million foreign visitors project, Tadatoshi Mamiya, JNTO chairman, said, “This year becomes a milestone for the growth of foreign visitors to our country. We will exert ourselves for the cause of inbound travel promotion.” The immediate goal for this year in the framework of 30-million-visitor project, at the threshold of the first phase of the project, is to achieve 10 million mainly from Japan’s major markets in East Asia such as China, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

In making overseas publicity, an individual theme and targeted segments will be clarified depending on each market for the promotional purpose. For the Chinese market, JNTO encouraged in the past creation of West Japan tours that visit Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. Foreign visitors to Japan for whom JNTO assisted in merchandising or in sale amounted to 478,000 in FY2008 and are expected to number 518,000 this year. For the market of Korea, for instance, JNTO recommends to merchandise tours that feature hot springs and provincial cities. Apart from marketing tours, JNTO launches e-learning system whereby it provides various facts about tourism resources as well as basic information about Japan, by way of developing human resources. As to the list of major markets for Japanese inbound travel, the Netherlands and North Europe were newly counted in for this year.

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The Government Revitalization Unit of the Hatoyama Cabinet assessed on April 28 the undertakings of Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) as part of the budgetary screening program. With regard to JNTO’s initiative for foreign tourist solicitation – including overseas website advertisements, invitation programs, and assistance in creating Japan-bound tours — it concluded such tasks should be undertaken by the government agency in accordance with a specific roadmap or be entrusted to private sectors as the case may be. As to its foreign visitor reception facilities like the tourist information centers (TIC), the Revitalization Unit ruled to put an end to JNTO’s direct involvement. Reviewers voiced that role-sharing among the government (Japan Tourism Agency: JTA), independent administrative institution (JNTO), and private sectors is unclear, leaving much room for private sectors’ activities. Most of the reviewers took it for granted, however, that tourism is vital in supporting the government’s growth scenario and that the foreign tourist solicitation initiative is indispensable.

The reviewers pointed out that a great part of the JNTO’s undertakings could be taken over by private sectors considering the fact that three billion yen allocated in the 2009 budget to the abovementioned initiative was executed in public tender by JNTO and private firms, of which 2.6 billion yen worth went to the latter. JNTO argued the budget can be appropriated to both public and private entities and that information-gathering and overseas networking is more befitted to the activities of the administrative institution like themselves. The reviewers yet maintained that since tourism nation is a nationally-established project, JETRO and the embassies can be made available to private firms as well for that matter. They further commented that JTA’s planning and budgeting is simply based upon JNTO’s market research, which is void of a long-term strategy, and that such task can be transferrable to private sectors.

With relation to the tourist information centers (TIC) managed by JNTO, reviewers said there are a plenty of tourist information offices nationwide run by local governments to cater to foreign visitors, which also serves for community vitalization, so they made a conclusion that those centers managed by JNTO should be scrapped.

Hiroshi Mizohata, commissioner of JTA, held a regular press conference the same day and said, “I am afraid the roles and functions of JTA and JNTO are not fully understood by the reviewing members. We would like to redefine them and try to establish a cooperative relationship between the two to pursue our goal comprehensively.” He further added, “When I visited JNTO offices in China and Korea, I realized the staff there are working hard with a tight budget compared with other Asian countries.” Regarding JNTO’s possible privatization, he gave his personal view as follows: “Tourism policy of other countries is basically carried out in unity of government and corporations. When we reflect on public interest induced by tourism, it would be beneficial for JTA and JNTO to work together.” As for the tourist information centers, he is of the opinion that “overall judgment should be made although some discussion will be needed with due respect of the given ruling.”

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.