A total of 371 companies and associations from Japan have participated in this year´s Inbound business meetings Japan Travel Mart as suppliers. 31 Tourism Journalists and over 300 buyers from around the world have seen a colorful Mart with new destinations and new trends in Japan.
Mr. Yasuto Kawarabayashi, Director International Tourism Promotion Division of the Japan Tourism Agency under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism, presented the Tourism policy of Japan.
In the year 2009 6,790 Million foreign tourists visited Japan and 15.448 Million Japans traveling abroad.
From January to October 2010 Japan Tourism has seen a plus of 30,9 %. That´s a Travel Consumption in Japan for the fiscal year of 2008: Domestic Travel without accommodation 4,9 trillion yen (20,9 %)- Travel abroad from inside Japan shows 1,7 trillion yen ( 7,2%); Foreigner travelling to Japan brought 1,3 trillion yen ( 5,7 %) in the country. The Domestioc Travel with accommodation is a value of 15,6 trillion yen ( 66,2).
With this numbers in the back, the Japanese Government has announced a new “Growth Strategy” in seven main strategic areas: The first should be Environment and Energy, followed by health and the asian economy, Tourism and local Revitalization, Science, technology and IT, Employment and Fostering Human development and Finance.
For the tourism is now the new target set to increase the number of foreign visitors to Japan to 25 million per year by the beginning of 2020 and to 30 million in the future. Also a target is to promote and creating new types of tourism and new destinations in the country. The Cabinet also advice to promote efforts to stagger vacation times.
The target for the Tourism Industry is 10 million foreign visitors in the year 2010, in 2013 it should be 15 million visitors, in 2020 and in the year 2025 the target is 25 million foreign visitors.
The priority markets for the Japan Tourism Industry are Germany, UK, France in Europe, Russia, China and India, Thailand , Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. Also Australia, Canada and the USA.
This should be done through a visibility enhancement program, for making the general public of overseas market aware of attractiveness of travels to Japan such as: Inviting mass media from abroad to Japan and giving support to them in collecting material. Doing publicity by TV commercials and other means abroad. Disseminating information on websites. Display exhibits in Japan booths at travel exhibitions and on other occasions abroad.
Also the support for local Travel Agents should be increased: A special program for assisting the creation and sale of attractive travel products for tourists to Japan such as: Inviting Travel Agents from abroad to Japan for destination visits and joint publicity for travel products for tourists to Japan.
New tagline is intended to call for foreigners repeated visits to Japan so that each time they visit the country they can become more and more familiar with a variety of Japanese tourism attractions, ranging from natural beauty, long history, traditional and modern culture, food to hospitality of ordinary people.
This should be combined with new promotions for the Sport´s and Event Tourism, the growths of the medical tourism, the new “ neo-Japanese Cuisine”, and a variety of new and better developed Tourist destinations.