TokyoTomo Travel Guide

(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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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

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.

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.