TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) sent to Canada a mission composed of the Outbound Travel Committee members to have discussions with Canadian tourist offices and suppliers in Banff on May 31 (local time). The mission was organized in the framework of Visit World Campaign (VWC) programs, whose objective was to share the market perception and analysis of Japanese travelers visiting Canada and to lead the way to achieve 300,000 Japanese visitors to Canada, up 50 percent from the previous year.

Takashi Sasaki, Vice Chairman of JATA and the leader of the mission, indicated the resolve on behalf of the Japanese team, saying “We want to make this year a new start of Japanese travelers’ comeback to Canada, aspiring to bring the number of visitors to 300,000. This is an immense figure but is a jump start needed for beating our ongoing deflationary spiral.” He further emphasized the importance of bilateral cooperation, adding that mutual efforts are vital in order to catch the wind in the sail during 2010.

Michael Ruby, a member of Asia Pacific Committee at Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), made a speech on behalf of the Canadian representatives, asserting this is a critical year for the tourism of the two nations. Both sides should join forces for the development of new products as Canada is a lucrative destination abundant in tourist attractions while they look forward to promotional activities in the Japanese market, he continued.

At the working-level discussion, the meeting was broken up into four subgroups, assigning each attendee to any of the four, to talk about “opportunities” and “drawbacks” in the promotion of tourism to Canada. The groups that dealt with opportunities produced 10 agenda such as “hands-on travel components,” “youth and student markets,” “active-senior market,” and “MICE,” while those that dealt with drawbacks submitted eight agendas, including “scarcity of new products,” “a small number of repeat travelers,” “short supply of air seats,” and “lackluster advertisement on the part of Canada.” Of these topics, major issues were picked up by ballots of all the members and discussion resumed group by group to make specific strategies.

Following a series of discussion, Anthony Rippingale, General Manager Japan at Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), concluded the meeting, saying the heated discussion has brought out the next steps we should take and that people involved are requested to find solutions after weighing the comments and proposals. On the Japanese side, a working group, in liaison with the Outbound Travel Committee, is supposed to hammer out an action plan and put it into practice.

Exchange of candid opinions convinces both parties that they are serious

The meeting at this time was realized because, following an appointment of Canada as a major destination for the Japanese travel market, Japan and Canada wanted to update perception of the current market situation and share recognition of the hurdles lying ahead. The Japan side proposed the round-table talk style, while the Canadian side selected agenda and framed how the meeting should be carried out. Both sides had worked over six months to wrap up pending matters to present them to the meeting. Hiroshi Sawabe, director of 20 Million Travelers Promotion Office, says the round-table talk was the first case for JATA mission.

There were various feedbacks from the meeting attendees; some say, “The discussion was fruitful as we could exchange views on tourism promotion with members of the tourist offices and suppliers,” and others say, “We were encouraged by the enthusiasm the Canadian people demonstrated.” Obviously, the meeting could produce something more than sorting out the problems by hectic discussion among executive and managerial people on both sides.

By NORIKO YAMADA, Travel Vision

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.

Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) held a special committee for the Visit World Campaign (VWC) promotion on April 9 and approved the FY2010 VWC action plan. Like last year, the main thrusts for this fiscal year are summarized to the following three points: focus on the major destinations, vitalization of regional markets to spur demand, and direct marketing in tie-up with media. JATA will continue the market exploitation and research as it did last year. Hiroshi Sawabe, director of VWC 20 Million Travelers Promotion Office, looked back on FY2009 and said, “It ended up with unsatisfactory figures, but our action plan implemented during the year was successful in strengthening the network with our business partners.” The action plan for FY2010 is intended to bring us much closer for stepping forward to the ultimate goal of 20 million outbound travelers, he added.

Focus on the major destinations means to make a promotional drive to send travelers to the 23 appointed countries and areas (mainland U.S.A., Hawaii, Guam, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, France, Australia, Vietnam, China, Macau, Malaysia, Egypt, seven Danubian countries, Canada, and Turkey). Specially highlighted destinations for this year are China that hosts the Shanghai Expo 2010, and Canada and Turkey that were counted in as the major destinations late in FY2009. As the measures taken with travel agencies, JATA will hold, like last year, trade seminars for the target destinations and organize big study tours.

With regard to vitalization of regional markets in Japan, JATA instructs each of its local chapters to work with local airports for staging travel exhibitions, or mounting a passport acquisition campaign in sync with some events, or hosting travel seminars for consumers. Such seminar had a success in Shizuoka last year with a good response from the audience. When it comes to direct marketing, promotional activities are being conceived in collaboration with foreign tourist offices, airlines, airports, and railway companies. Train-jack advertisements are being planned for the announcement of the renewed Haneda Airport and for passport acquisition campaign.

JATA continues market exploitation and research activities in a move to encourage young people’s travel mind and to spur travel demand to North America. In order to boost demand to Europe, it will launch a Mediterranean campaign combined with the Middle East seminars as the flight frequency to the Middle East has grown considerably. It will try to expand the cruise market as well.

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.

A Vietnam tourism seminar was recently held jointly by Vietnam Airlines, VWC 20 Million Traveler Promotion Office at JATA and Indochina Tourism Promotion Forum (ITPF). Speaking at the seminar, Nguyen Quoc Tuan, General Manager, Japan, Vietnam Airlines, said that the Vietnam travel market started to show a sign of recovery since the beginning of 2010. Hiroshi Sawabe, Director of VWC 20 Million Traveler Promotion Office at JATA added that Vietnam should become a promising market attracting 500,000 visitors well within one or one and a half years.

Commenting on its future strategy, Hideo Aoki, the airline’s Senior Passenger Sales Supervisor, Eastern Japan, said that it plans to promote the central and northern Vietnam as a long-stay resort destination, following the airline’s drastic increase of weekly frequency by 117 percent or to 48 weekly flights on the Japan/Vietnam route in 2010 including the code-sharing flights with Japan Airlines. As its Japan flights provide the same-day connections to central Vietnam including Hue, Dalat and Nha Trang, Vietnam Airlines strives to further develop the Vietnam travel market.

Meanwhile, the airline has organized a study tour to central Vietnam jointly with VWC 20 Million Traveler Promotion Office. At the seminar, Chiharu Suzuki of Nippon Travel Agency, Eastern Japan, who participated in the study tour, gave a presentation on the recent Vietnam tourism market. The presentation introduced seven appealing tourism points of central Vietnam that include “World Heritage,” “beautiful beaches,” “a large selection of hotels,” “healthy Vietnamese food,” “newly opened Casino,” “spas and marine sports” and “two golf courses.” Suzuki said that these tourism materials should attract Japanese travelers from the seniors to the young people. Resort hotels along the coast line are slated for opening in two to three years and the central Vietnam will no doubt be Vietnam’s leading beach resort, Suzuki concluded.

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