TokyoTomo Travel Guide

In the government budget framework for the fiscal year 2010, Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) could get 12,652 million yen for its allocation, 2.02 times this year’s budget, according to JTA. The initial request as of November 2009 was 25,140 million yen, 4.02 times the current budget. The amounts of funds appropriated to the principal items are as follows: 9,477 million yen for the first phase program of the 30 million foreign visitor project (vs. 3,191 million yen for this year, 2.97 times), 643 million yen for tourism-based regional development and revitalization plan (vs. 625 million yen, 1.03 times), 28 million yen for preparations for implementing work-life balance (vs. 57 million yen, 0.49 time), and 330 million yen for extensive surveys for tourism statistics (vs. 116 million yen, 2.83 times).

In the first-phase program of the 30 million foreign visitor project, Visit Japan Campaign (VJC) has an appropriation of 8,648 million yen (3.1 times). The money mostly goes to promotional activities at major markets for better awareness and invigorated solicitation. The receptive environmental improvement undertaking gets 196 million yen – the highest growth of 4.94 times among all items – for establishing an assessment scheme of receptive infrastructure for foreign visitors and for the relevant human resources development. MICE promotion obtains 449 million yen (1.24 times) and the APEC tourism ministers’ conference is funded with 185 million yen as the host country.

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According to Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of visitor arrivals from overseas during the year 2009 declined by 18.7 percent to 6,790,000 year-on-year. The decrease is seen for the first time in six years since 2003 when SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) was widely spreading. The double-digit year-on-year decrease hits Japan’s travel market for the first time in 23 years since 1986 when the Plaza Accord triggered a rise of the Japanese yen. The main negative factors, as Tadatoshi Mamiya, JNTO Chairman pointed out, are attributed to the global economic downturn, the strong Japanese yen and the new H1N1 flu epidemic. He mentioned, “The realization of a tourism-oriented nation requires a long lead time before it is firmly established,” adding, “It is vitally important to continue the tourism promotion with untiring efforts to keep sending out necessary tourism information.”

By country, Korea showed the largest year-on-year decrease of 33.4 percent to 1,587,000, followed by Taiwan with a 26.3 percent year-on-year decrease to 1,024,000. The decline by these two top producing countries, ranked first and second, accounts for three fourths of the overall decrease in Japan’s inbound travel market. In terms of a monthly turnover, however, both Korea and Taiwan enjoyed a double-digit increase during the month of December. Meanwhile, China showed a year-on-year increase for five consecutive months since last August. The number of tourist visitors, which continued to rise after the Visit Japan Campaign (VJC) was launched, presently show a decline in share compared to the business travelers

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The announcement came on January 8 from the Ministry for Land Infrastructure Transport and Tourism (MLIT), with effect from March28, Sapporo New Chitose Airport, in Hokkaido will increase its landing and take-off slot for foreign carriers currently only allowed on Wednesday between 11:20am and 1:50pm to both Tuesday and Wednesday, with a wider time slot, between 12:00noon and 4:00pm, allowing it to cater a higher number of foreign carriers to use this airport.

The freeing of landing and take-off slots for foreign carriers would not have been made possible without Japan Air Self Defence Force endorsement, which it is sharing its airspace and airport runway. By relaxing the restrictions, it will help to increase the number of foreign tourists, which the move is inline with the current “Visit Japan Campaign” with a target to attract 25 million visitor arrivals by 2019. Currently, international flights may use the airport from 5:00pm on Fridays and all day on Saturdays and Sundays, with no changes planned for these times.

The changes will most likely to entail an increase in flight frequency by both existing Chinese and Russian Airlines using Sapporo, and prompting other Chinese carriers to consider launching new flight services. The number of Chinese visitors have been steadily growing, and efforts are made to expand the Chinese travel market which it hope this will make up for the loss of visitors from South Korea and elsewhere as a result of the global economic crisis.