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OTOA Elects M.J. Tour President Adachi as Next Chairman; Appeals for
Manifestation of Ground Operator Name in Tour Ads Early-June 2008
Overseas Tour Operators Association of Japan (OTOA) held an
ordinary general meeting on May 28 and elected Yokichi Adachi,
president of M.J. Tours, as the chairman and Masahiro Tatsumi,
president of ID Tours South Pacific, and Takahiko Ohata, president of
Sai Travel Service, as vice chairmen. Their term is set for two
years.
At the party following the general meeting, the new chairman
Adachi expressed his resolve with respect to the following two
points: "We are always conscious of safety and security of travel. We
must ponder once again what it means for our business," and "In the
light of product liability, we should positively hold ourselves
responsible for tour planning and operation." He is eager to lead
OTOA to be acknowledged by consumers and win confidence from them.
Safety and security of travelers are always a major concern for
the Association, so it has been vigilant about safety management of
tour programs and transmitted security information from time to time
concerning specific destinations.
Mr. Adachi, while pledging to continue such principal works,
introduces a new idea of "product liability." The ground operators,
with request from travel agencies, undertake tour operation abroad
including and arrangements and services pertinent to tour movements,
hotel reservation, transfer, tour guides, or even assistance for
emergencies such as an accident, incident, and illness.
In view of the fact that the success of a tour depends much on
the capability of these ground operators, OTOA is going to request
travel agencies to manifest the name of the ground operator in
brochures and advertisements at the time of their product release.
The Association hopes the demand could be met this autumn when the
agencies announce tour programs for the next year.
It will wait and see for the time being how the description comes
out, but expects such manifestation to be enforced by law in the
future just like putting labels of origin on farm and marine products
and other processed foodstuffs.
Mr. Adachi also made mention of the problems stemmed from the
controversial trade practices between the operators and agencies,
which were voiced in the survey conducted last year with OTOA
members. Touching upon the issues relating to terms of payment and
deposit requirement, he emphasized the need to work together to
harmonize OTOA's request with agencies' financial policy in an effort
to gain trust from overseas suppliers.
Kotaro Kogi, vice chairman of Japan Association of Travel Agents
(JATA), spoke at the party on behalf of JATA as follows, "The
decrease in the number of overseas travelers cannot be attributed to
the young people's loss of enthusiasm alone. We, the travel agencies,
may be in need of changing our business styles and recognizing
problems inherent to the travel industry. We must be aware that our
trade practices are questioned by overseas suppliers. A solution
should be sought for the improvement of the situation through serious
discussion between agencies and operators."
He stated his willingness to define the meaning of "global
standard" advocated by overseas business partners and continued,
"OTOA and JATA must keep exchanging views as both are tied in
brotherhood."
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