TOURS BLOSSOM
Tourists flock to see cherry blossoms, get to meet an Akita dog and enjoy fireworks
THE annual number of foreign visitors to Japan is expected to top 30 million this year for the first time. These visitors are spending their time in Japan in remarkably diverse ways, with an increasing number going to places that many Japanese people do not know well. The government is aiming to increase the number of foreign visitors to 40 million in 2020, and will examine new travel trends. At a fireworks festival in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo, in July, some of the paid seats were occupied by tourists from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Guiding the party was Koichi Yoshida, 36, who is known in Taiwan as a promoter for travel to Japan. The Chinese-language travel website that he runs is so influential that many tourists use it to decide where to go in Japan. Koichi started his business in Taiwan in 2013 and launched a website specialising in travel to Japan. His website is popular because it features sightseeing spots that are not familiar, even to many Japanese. Koichi’s site provides useful information, such as updates on cherry blossoms and how to make bus connections. “The website carries articles written by fashion-conscious travel writers in Taiwan because they ‘understand the heart of Taiwan people’,” Koichi said. He also appears on TV and other media outlets to spur interest in travelling to Japan. In 2016, Koichi’s company opened a shop in Taipei to promote Japan travel information, at which the Akita prefectural government held an event the next year to let visitors meet an Akita dog. The event was a success and visitors from Taiwan accounted for 45% of all non-japanese overnight tourists to Akita Prefecture that year, said the Japan Tourism Agency. “If (visitors from overseas) spend money, that can help vitalise regional areas,” Koichi said. The number of repeat foreign travellers to Japan has grown, and many places that are not famous among Japanese people have turned into sightseeing spots for foreign visitors. These locations have raised their profiles thanks to travellers’ blogs and postings on social media. Foreign visitors have accounted for about 30% of participants in facility tours in recent years. Makoto Watanabe, president of an operating company for a website specialising in news on tourism in Japan, said: “Many local governments take an impromptu approach in asking bloggers to write stories, without even looking into what each blogger specialises in. That kind of approach makes it hard for them to see results.” It’s essential for local governments to make efforts to combine social media with traditional approaches, such as holding promotional events.
“He who would travel happily must travel light.” – ANTOINE DE ST EXUPERY