TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Seiji Maehara, Minster of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), revealed a motto “Carry Out One’s Word” as an objective 2010 during the recent joint press interview. He asserted that the year 2010 will be “The Year” for MLIT to implement respective policies for the tourism-oriented nation and the Open Skies agreement to be compiled by the Growth Strategy Meeting.

In terms of the tourism policy, MLIT will, among others, start groundwork in an effort to achieve 20 million visitor arrivals by 2016, 25 million by 2019 and eventually 30 millions visitors from overseas. Commenting on the promotion of visitor arrivals from China, in particular, Transport Minister Maehara pointed out the fact that only one million travelers visit Japan annually from China out of a population of 1.3 billion, probably because of the strict entry regulations for Chinese nationals. He clearly stated that the current regulations applicable for Chinese visitors should be reviewed including income limitation and should be relaxed accordingly. In the wake of China’s recent move to lift a ban on Japanese companies to operate overseas travel business in China, MLIT will ask that an early selection of Japanese travel agencies be done.

Regarding domestic tourism, MILT will aim to address development of “new tourism,” spreading out the holidays evenly and enhancing the partnership with other ministries and agencies. Spreading out the holidays is budgeted as a government pilot program, by which MLIT considers also changing school holidays depending on the regions. The partnership with the other ministries and agencies will make it possible to develop “agricultural tourism,” “ecological tourism,” and “medical tourism” as well, Maehara suggested.

As far as the government administration in aviation is concerned, the Minister mentioned that the Airport Development Special Account Act shall be thoroughly reviewed and, in this context, MLIT stands by the principles that an additional airport will not be built. In stead, aircraft landing fees will be lowered in a drive to enhance favorable environment on a competitive basis. “What is especially important for us is to focus on the realization of 24-hour international flight operations at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport,” indicated Maehara, stressing that MLIT will allocate more than half of the increased take-off and landing slots at Haneda to international flights, thus enabling airlines to operate international long-haul routes also during the day, coordinating with Narita International Airport.

Commenting on the three airports in the Kansai region, the Minister said that it is such a burning issue, but he explained again that MLIT will keep Osaka’s Itami Airport with scaled-down flight operations. With regards to Kansai International Airport, he said that the challenge the airport faces is how to increase the number of airline customers and the only strategy remains foreseeable is to boost traffic demand from and to Kansai. While MLIT considers reducing the interest-bearing debt of 1,100 billion yen in favor of Kansai International Airport, it must also consider a strategy to stimulate its travel demand, Maehara cited, adding that he would make a final decision taking into consideration various ideas to be exchanged at the Growth Strategy Meeting to find the best way.

Meanwhile, MLIT intends to provide Kansai International Airport the subsidies in the amount of 7.5 billion yen, provided that the Growth Strategy Meeting comes up with the final conclusion compiled therein by June, 2010.

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.

Liaison conference of tourism associations’ chairmen, composed of 18 tourism-related organizations, drew up a joint proposal on policy-making for Tourism Nation and submitted it on December 15 to Kiyomi Tsujimoto, Vice Minister, and Yuji Fujimoto, Parliamentary Secretary, both at Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). The proposal deals with pressing issues in achieving the objectives outlined in the Tourism Nation Promotion Basic Plan. It recounts a number of tasks to tackle to reach the goals, for instance, facilitation in the process of passport acquisition for achieving the objective of 20 million overseas travelers.

The proposal claims that, in the passport application, there should be more service counters nationwide to process the application at such locations as post offices, or that travel agencies should be enabled to handle the application on behalf of travelers. It must be studied, the paper recommends, that application by mail or online becomes acceptable, and passport acquisition fee is reduced. Moreover, the paper advises promotion of overseas educational trips and beef-up of Japan-based airlines’ competitiveness. With regard to vitalization of charter flight operation from regional airports, it recommends to entrust C.I.Q. operation at those airports to local governments or private sectors.

In the proposal for achieving the goal of 20 million foreign visitors, the paper points out the necessity of renewing the catch line and logo. Citing the examples of the United Kingdom’s “Visit Britain,” Korea’s “Korea Sparkling,” and Thailand’s “Amazing Thailand,” it advises to use simple and familiar English words. It also insists that some manual should be made available for local governments and tourist facilities to develop their websites in foreign languages.

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.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan and Taiwan agreed to inaugurate new services between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Taipei’s Matsuyama Airport after the completion of the fourth runway at Haneda which is slated for October 2010. The decision came after the respective private sectors – Interchange Association, Japan, and Taiwan’s East Asia Relation’s Commission agreed to allow both sides to operate four daily flights using daytime departure and arrival slots. Asked to comment on the new agreement, JAL’s President Haruka Nishimatsu said that it is a significant achievement which should lead to further expansion of relations between Japan and Taiwan and Japan Airlines intends to increase services from Haneda with two daily flights to Taipei’s Matsuyama. All Nippon Airways also said that it will consider starting to operate the route as it becomes an excellent opportunity to deepen the exchanges between the two countries. Taiwan’s Eva Air (BR) revealed that it is planning on new services from Matsuyama to Haneda welcoming the opportunity.

The agreement this time also includes a substantial increase of the weekly flight frequency from 28 to 45 between Kansai and Taiwan as well as Chubu and Taiwan. It also expands beyond rights from Kansai and Chubu International Airports from the present two destinations to eleven destinations including five US cities and six European cities, six of which are passenger flight destinations. They are Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Moscow, Amsterdam and Prague. On the other hand, Seattle, one of the designated destinations for both cargo and passenger, is eliminated. The new agreement enables Taiwanese airlines to operate services from Taipei to Europe via Japan. Besides, the Okinawa/Taipei services are also enhanced, granting Eva Air a right to operate passenger flights between Taipei and Okinawa.

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.