Visit Japan Travel Mart 2011 Yokohama, Japan
November 22-23 ■ Pacifico Yokohama convention centre ■ Yokohama, Japan HERITAGE FOCUS
Sushi courses and ‘genuine’ Japan top the marketing menu
JAPAN IS increasingly marketing heritage and experience-based tourism in a bid to meet the changing demands of the international market.
Speaking at this year’s Visit Japan REPORT CONFERENCE
■THE EVENT: Visit Japan Travel Mart 2011 ■AUDIENCE: 350 overseas buyers and media, as well as 400 domestic sellers ■THEMES COVERED: Japan is open to tourism following the tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster earlier this year ■ CONCLUSION: The Visit Japan project will target 15 markets, including the UK with new investment in marketing. Japan is aiming to welcome 15 million tourists in 2013, 20 million in 2016 and 25 million in 2019
Business travellers keep market afloat
Ed Robertson
THE UK market to Japan is performing stronger than other international markets, despite UK arrivals dropping 25% in the first 10 months of this year. Speaking at the Visit Japan Travel
Mart 2011, Shuichi Kameyama, the director of the international tourism promotion division for the Japan Tourism Agency, said the number of visitors from the UK in October was 16,800. This is 9.2% fewer than in October 2010 – however total international visitors declined 15% to 615,800 in the same month.
MARKETING DRIVE New $75m fund will promote ‘safe’ message
THE UK is one of 15 countries Japan is targeting in a bid to boost its tourism arrivals following the tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster earlier this year. Speaking at this year’s Visit Japan
08 01.12.2011
Travel Mart 2011, Shuichi Kameyame, the director of the international tourism promotion division for the Japan Tourism Agency, said $75 million has been set aside for marketing in the selected countries.
Kameyame said the UK is Japan’s
biggest European market, accounting for 2.1% of all visitors to Japan last year, and the funds would be aimed at educating travellers that Japan is still safe to visit.
Radiation levels are low despite Fukushima damage Kameyama said: “The US and UK
have been doing quite good but this is because of the increase in business travel, while the number of leisure tourists remains quite small.” He said in the first 10 months of
the year, the number of UK visitors had fallen by 26.5% to 114,900, compared with a 30% drop in total international visitors to about five million in the same period. Kameyama admitted that many
remained concerned about radiation, after the tsunami caused a leak at the Fukushima nuclear power station. However, he added that airborne
radiation levels remain lower in Tokyo than they do in cities such as New York, Berlin, Singapore, Beijing and Seoul which all suffer from natural, as well as man-made, radiation. Kameyama said Japan’s inbound tourism had also fallen victim to a strengthening of the yen. “We cannot deny that exchange
rates and the economic situation have certain effects on travel to Japan,” he added.
Travel Mart 2011, Jack Kumada from JTB Global Marketing and Travel said the change was part of an effort to show tourists a different side of Japan. He added: “Over the past 20 or 30 years we have looked at very westernised accommodation. “Now, tourists would like to
experience the real Japan so we have to offer more Japanese-style lodgings and cultural activities, especially for the UK market.” Kumada said this meant old Japanese town houses in the south of the country were being converted into tourist properties while homestays were becoming more popular, as are attractions such as sushi-making courses and bicycle tours of Kyoto.
He said the changes had been
driven by an influx of tourists to events such as the 1998 Winter Olympics and the 2002 Football World Cup who were hoping to experience something different. Kumada added that inbound tourism would not be driven by discounting following the disasters this year. “The domestic market is very strong and is really coming back right now,” he said.
“Unfortunately, people did not trust what the Japanese government said,” he said. An emergency response project was launched in a bid to change perceptions about Japan. This saw more than 1,000 representatives from about 800 travel agencies and media outlets being invited to the country in July.
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