TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Scandinavian Tourist Board (STB) requested Japanese travel agencies to market tours for winter season at the Scandinavia seminar 2010 held on June 8. Taku Miyamoto, market director for Japan at STB, reported at the seminar that growth in the number of nights spent by Japanese travelers during 2009 was hampered by the spread of the H1N1 new influenza, but the sharp decline was staved off just to remain at the level of negative 8.5 percent with, country by country, Demark up 3.7 percent, Norway down 8 percent, and Sweden down 10 percent.

Further, according to the six-month statistics from October 2009 to March 2010, Scandinavia total marked a 8.5 percent growth with Denmark up 9.3 percent, Norway up 22.2 percent, and Sweden marginally down 0.5 percent. It looks like the media exposure by TV programs and magazines since last year, combined with direct consumer marketing by means of mixi and twitter, has produced an effect.

STB acknowledges that Scandinavia is still taken as a summer destination judging by that fact that 72 percent of annual overnight stays is made in the six months of summer. It hopes to boost the proportion of winter stays to the 40 percent level in the near future. It will continue, for this purpose, to appeal Scandinavia for winter season as well by dint of media exposure and web communication.

Following Miyamoto’s briefing, Yuko Sato, marketing executive of STB, made presentation of Christmas markets, fjord, and aurora (northern lights) as winter travel themes. She made a proposal of producing tours featuring any one of them or a combination of two, or Christmas market coupled with shopping and town walking. STB has updated Scandinavia Product Manual this year while it issued in April a Japanese edition of a travel map and a guide booklet.

Sato also suggested using Scandinavian Airlines for an inspection tour as the airline is intent on grappling with environmental problems by way of carbon offset programs and development of alternative fuels, and suggested using the coastal express line “Hurtigruten” for aurora watching. For consumer promotional purpose, STB plans to hold a contest of photographs taken onboard the Scandinavian Airlines’ flights.

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 VWC 20 Million Travelers Promotion Office at Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) plans to launch a summer travel campaign from the beginning to the middle of June. Its publicity makes an appearance in encompassing train advertisement on three railway lines in the Tokyo metropolitan area and posters at the main stations nationwide. JATA brought the schedule forward by two weeks this year because sale of summer tours at retail stores starts right after the spring holidays, and package tour wholesalers therefore pressed JATA to start the campaign earlier than usual. JATA is working with foreign tourist offices and airlines to capture summer travel demand at the earliest possible opportunities.

Scandinavian Tourist Board (STB), Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), Tourism Australia (TA), Finnair (AY), and Jetstar Airways (JQ) cooperated in artwork and visualization of the destination images for JATA’s publicity by contributing part of their archives. Encompassing train advertisement is run for two weeks from the beginning of June on the three lines of JR Keihin Tohoku, Keihin Electric Express Railway, and Keisei Electric Railway. Poster display is scheduled from the beginning of June for a week at eight key stations across the country including JR Sapporo Station and Naha Airport Station (Okinawa) on monorail railway.

On the poster, a notice is given about the “Let’s go kaigai (abroad)” campaign slated for July 24 and about JATA World Travel Fair starting from September 24. As to the Travel Fair, another campaign is forthcoming in which admission tickets will be offered to consumers for free in a drawing.

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 Embassy of Sweden and Scandinavian Tourist Board hosted a travel seminar “Destination New Sweden” in Tokyo. Stefan Noreén, Swedish Ambassador to Japan, stated at the onset that the seminar was held to promote human exchange between Japan and Sweden by introducing Swedish lifestyle through music, design works, and cuisine. Sweden has been successful in establishing its image in Japan as a design-oriented country as is illustrated by popularity of shops and brands that features Swedish design, like IKEA that sells stylish furniture at a reasonable price or BabyBjörn that specializes in baby goods.

Last year, a Scandinavian restaurant AQUAVIT, highly renowned in New York, opened its branch in Gaien-mae, Tokyo; thus, things Swedish have attracted much attention these days.

With Swedish images gaining ground in Japan, Japanese travelers to Sweden is steadily growing despite the struggling economy, said Noreén. Gunilla Sjöberg, marketing manager at Visit Sweden, followed up with a remark that Japanese visitors in September rose 18 percent from last year. Taku Miyamoto, marketing director for Japan at Scandinavian Tourist Board, also said about a half of the Japanese visitors are repeaters who have a great interest not only in sceneries and historic buildings but in art, designs, and other cultural experience. Many young people are seen traveling to study superior designs of Sweden. Chanting the praises of Swedish design works, Ewa Kumlin, managing director of the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, stressed that the new term “Life Seeing” is now taking place of the conventional “Sight Seeing” as a travel theme. She proposed inspection tours to focus on environment and ecology, and medical and health-care system, adding that the potentiality of Sweden as a travel destination is infinite.

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.