Government Wants 20 Million Foreign Tourists In 2020

[Mulboyne]

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Govt plans to poll foreign tourists in Kyoto

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry in September likely will begin polling foreign tourists in Kyoto to get their opinions on sightseeing locations and find out common questions they have as visitors to Japan. The ministry, which is conducting the survey in cooperation with eight firms and organizations, will send undercover inspectors to facilities, similar to the approach used to compile the Michelin Guide surveys of prestigious restaurants...Undercover inspectors will be assigned mainly to the polling of American, Asian and European tourists via travel agencies and accommodation facilities. The inspectors will be loaned the latest cell phones equipped with a personal handyphone system to e-mail their feedback about tourist facilities in Kyoto. The inspectors also will be asked to photograph the tourists' favorite places with the phones' built-in cameras. The ministry will use handyphone data, including the location-tracking information, to establish tourist routes and improve services at facilities...more...

[bolt_krank]

I can see the system working now.
The information is sent back to headquaters - then adjusted here and there.
The final result - "There's nothing wrong with Japan, but we need to be on the lookout for foreigners committing crimes."

[kusai Jijii]

Considering the bullshit that some foreign nationals (e.g. malaysians) have to go through just to get a fucking visa to come visit here, the whole plan is all just a little bit too funny.

[Greji]

Considering the bullshit that some foreign nationals (e.g. malaysians) have to go through just to get a fucking visa to come visit here, the whole plan is all just a little bit too funny.

I couldn't find it in a cursory search, but I think someone posted a survey taken back around Koizumi's big rant to up the number of tourists, where somewhere over 50% of J-people surveyed didn't even want FG tourists, let alone long noses living here.

Take probably voted twice......

[Mulboyne]

There have been a number of press reports, like this one, warning about a drop in tourism prompted by the rising yen and weakening global economy. The Yomiuri takes a look at the recent September data which showed a year-on-year fall in visitors to Japan of 6.9% - the largest decline in over five years when SARS and the Iraq war hit consumer confidence. Japanese airlines have reported falls of 14.1% on traffic on international routes for the same month. Korean visitor numbers were hit hardest, according to the September data, falling 20.8%. A 12% drop in visitors from Britain, coupled with an 11.3% decline in those from America, has hit international hotel chains operating in the city centres hard. Some financial companies have cancelled their contracts with major hotels because they do not expect demand for business trips to recover any time soon. The Government's plan to increase tourist numbers under the auspices of the Yokoso campaign has been so far been conducted against a backdrop of relatively stable exchange rates and even yen weakness. A sharply stronger yen, however, represents a major challenge to the the near term target of reaching 10 million visitors by 2010. The 2008 total to date is still above the 2007 number but further weakness over the coming months could mean that the annual total falls short of last year's 8.35 million. Meanwhile, domestic tour operators are hoping to take advantage of the situation and plan to step up marketing of overseas tours to Japanese tourists.

[Behan]

I think glasses sales will go up as the locals will undoubtedly over-strain their eyes from staring at all the extra gaijin.



This pic from Google images isn't exactly what I had in mind but it's so much more interesting than the self-pity laden post I had orignally intended.

[Mulboyne]

Data just released shows 739,100 visitors for October which is a 5.9% decline from last year. That makes it the third consecutive month of year on year declines. Korean visitors were down 15.2%. which was the largest drop, while Americans were down 14.3%.

[Mulboyne]

The November number has just been released. Foreign visitors are down 19.3% from last year. Korean travellers, hit by the decline of the won, fell by almost a half. The 2008 total to date is still 2.2% ahead of last year but a bad December number might mean visitor numbers will show a decline for the full year. The Government's 2008 target of 9.15 million visitors is out of the question.

[Greji]

The Government's 2008 target of 9.15 million visitors is out of the question.

The locals will be happy because they don't want them to lick the fish at Tsukiji, or follow the maikos around Kyoto.

[omae mona]

The locals will be happy because they don't want them to lick the fish at Tsukiji, or follow the maikos around Kyoto.

Due to the decreased number of tourists, a merger has been announced, so tourism activities will be consolidated. Going forward, tourists will be licking the maikos.

[Greji]

Due to the decreased number of tourists, a merger has been announced, so tourism activities will be consolidated. Going forward, tourists will be licking the maikos.

Being one of the senior fg residents of the islands of four seasons, I hereby claim the responsibility of demonstrating this new technique to the tourists.

[Mulboyne]

[YT]t9RszcLX9Ck[/YT]

A short video clip about foreign tourists in Japan over New Year. No subtitles and you'll probably want to slip through the commercials.

[DrP]

After spending more than 4hrs helping a friend file a victim's report at the local pongi koban, I doubt we'll be doing much to promote Japan to anyone. It really couldn't be more tourist inhospitable than say, Mogadishu. My friend got touted, spiked and rolled to an enormous tune. Something rather common in the pong -- but i was truly amazed how the keystone coppers wanted to turn it the other way. Hell, they were even reticent about providing their OWN ID. The other thing bizarre was the chief flatfloot wearing $2000 gucci loafers and a conk --- hmmm, wonder where he got THAT bonus ???

[Level3]

You'd think the Japanese government could be more Honest and just say,

"We want 20 million tourists' MONEY by 2020; but we don7t actually want the hassles of you smelly foreign criminals actually coming here and disturbing beautiful Japan. Please visit your local Japanese embassy and deposit your cash now."

- fingerprinting everyone as a terrorist, when all terrorist acts in Japan were done by Japanese
- crazy excahnge rates
- an initial wave of nouveau riche Chinese middle class coming here
for the first time and deciding not to come back because it's just too expensive
- more and more exposure on the Internet of the down sides of Japan
- a new wave of laid off part time workers going back to their home countries [and probably begging for money from back home to get a plane ticket out] and telling their friends that Japan sucks and the government policy is basically "fuck the gaijin"
- Oh, and in a few years they're gonna raise the sales tax to 10% or more

Nokoso Japan!

[Mulboyne]

December numbers are now in so the 2008 total has just been announced. The total number of visitors to Japan last year was 8,352,000 which represents a 0.1% increase over last year rather than the much-feared decline. Since this is the year in which the new Tourist Agency was created, the spin doctors are at work, pointing out that the total was running 10% ahead last year's number, "on account of the Visit Japan campaign", until the credit crunch and stronger yen caused a sharp decline.

The number of Japanese travelling overseas declined 7.6% to 15,987,000. This is being attributed to fuel surcharges and other price rises at the beginning of the year which affected consumer confidence. While the mood remains dark, the strong yen encouraged some travellers to head for Korea, Macau, Hong Kong and Saipan again, so the trend began to improve towards the end of the year.

[Greji]

".....The number of Japanese travelling overseas declined 7.6%....."

I'm all for the Yellow Taxi's staying home and bagging their fg's in the Roppongi area....

[Mulboyne]

January visitor numbers have just been released and, bloody hell, they were bad. Compared with January last year, the total was down 18.4% to 580,000. The new Tourist Agency has announced that its visitor target for 2009 is to match last year's 8,352,000. The agency head said that the mid-term target of 10 million visitors by 2010 is looking difficult.

In January, Korean visitors fell by half, Germans by 21.6% and Americans by 12.7%. However, those from China and Hong Kong were up by 30% over the short New Year period.

[GuyJean]

I'm sure the exchange rate is having a huge effect, so I don't think the failure of the Yokoso! is all to blame.. Well, sure it is!

GJ

[Mulboyne]

It's like watching a slow-motion car crash. February tourist numbers are now in and the total of 408,800 represents a 41.3% decline compared with the previous year. That's the biggest year-on-year monthly fall since the 41.8% drop in August 1971 which was mainly a reaction to the high numbers attending the 1970 Osaka Expo. Visitor statistics have been officially recorded since 1961 and February 2009 goes down as the second largest decline on record. One major factor is that Chinese New Year fell in February last year but this year's was in January so the decline last month was smaller than it would have been, while this month is larger, than if the holiday has been in the same month. Also, last year was a leap year so we are comparing 29 days with 28.

[Mulboyne]

The Yomiuri has a piece (Japanese) about the inauspicious start for the Tourism Agency. Rather than ushering in a bright era, the new Agency has witnessed some of the worst declines in incoming tourist numbers ever registered. The Agency actually has five main objectives and none of them appear to be attainable. There are the two foreign visitor targets (10m by 2010, 20m by 2020); the Japanese overseas travel target (20m by 2010); a target for foreign tourist spending (30 trillion yen by 2010 vs 23.5 trillion in 2007); a plan to increase the length of the average domestic trip (4 nights by 2010 vs 2.42 in 2007) and a target to increase the number of international conferences hosted in Japan (252 by 2011 vs 216 in 2007). One hurdle which needs to be overcome is name recognition in Japan. Despite publicity, only 10% of the Japanese public had heard of the Agency according to a survey last October. Worse, when staffers call regional branch offices of the Ministry saying they are from the Tourism Agency (Kankocho), even their own ministry colleagues confuse it with the word for "public agency" (kankocho). Despite this, the Yomiuri suggests that the work of the agency must continue and has shown had a couple of low profile successes. One advisor points out that the Agency has to work out how to turn ideas and information into action while also realizing that it is competing in the international market.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

i'm not sure what this agency's function is, but until japan in general cleans up their act when it comes to the racial profiling and harrassment of people entering the country, and even more harrassment once in the country, no agency or ambassadors of cute or pokemon centres are going to reverse the decline.

in a recent conversation with the kenyan embassy's consular, he told me that a few months back, there was a big conference in kyoto that had a very large number of kenyan government officials attending. the personal assistant of one of those attendants arrived into kix on a different flight than his boss and was detained for 4 hours because of 'suspicious appearance'. the guy had his business card, visa paperwork, everything. but they wanted to know why this guy hadn't travelled with his boss (the answer was that the boss had flown in from hong kong where he was on holiday with his family and the PA had flown from kenya). the consular had to come down from kyoto and go to the airport to get him out of detention. that same consular, upon travelling to hokkaido for another governmental summit event, was harrassed for an hour upon arriving in sapporo airport because he only had his gaijin card on him, and not his diplomatic passport.

as a result of incidents like these, japan is on a 'not recommended' list of places to visit in kenyan travel agencies. after my detention last year at kix, i've had several friends who've changed their mind about including japan in their travel plans this year. not because of my incident specifically or they're worried about getting detained, but because they are opposed to the fingerprinting/photographing and random harrassment of foreigners. going on holiday is supposed to be fun and relaxing, and japan doesn't really fit into those categories if you're fingerprinted and photographed like a criminal just for wanting to visit.

i'll be very interested to see the numbers next year of just how short they fall of their 10 million mark.

[Samurai_Jerk]

i'm not sure what this agency's function is, but until japan in general cleans up their act when it comes to the racial profiling and harrassment of people entering the country, and even more harrassment once in the country, no agency or ambassadors of cute or pokemon centres are going to reverse the decline.

in a recent conversation with the kenyan embassy's consular, he told me that a few months back, there was a big conference in kyoto that had a very large number of kenyan government officials attending. the personal assistant of one of those attendants arrived into kix on a different flight than his boss and was detained for 4 hours because of 'suspicious appearance'. the guy had his business card, visa paperwork, everything. but they wanted to know why this guy hadn't travelled with his boss (the answer was that the boss had flown in from hong kong where he was on holiday with his family and the PA had flown from kenya). the consular had to come down from kyoto and go to the airport to get him out of detention. that same consular, upon travelling to hokkaido for another governmental summit event, was harrassed for an hour upon arriving in sapporo airport because he only had his gaijin card on him, and not his diplomatic passport.

as a result of incidents like these, japan is on a 'not recommended' list of places to visit in kenyan travel agencies. after my detention last year at kix, i've had several friends who've changed their mind about including japan in their travel plans this year. not because of my incident specifically or they're worried about getting detained, but because they are opposed to the fingerprinting/photographing and random harrassment of foreigners. going on holiday is supposed to be fun and relaxing, and japan doesn't really fit into those categories if you're fingerprinted and photographed like a criminal just for wanting to visit.

i'll be very interested to see the numbers next year of just how short they fall of their 10 million mark.

Until the economy gets back on track and currencies stabilize it's hard to blame other factors but there definitely is that view among some people abroad that the Japanese are racist and arrogant. I don't think that really matters though. China has a worse reputation but it's tourism industry is much more robust than Japan's.

Japan will never compete with the rest of Asia. For your average non-Asian tourist there's not really much of a difference between Japan and China but Japan costs a whole hell of a lot more and doesn't seem quite as exciting or diverse. It'll also never compete with SE Asia where a backpacker can live off of ten bucks a day, the beaches are beautiful, you can see several countries in just a couple of weeks, and pussy and booze are cheap as hell.

I think Japan's only chance is for Asians to get keep getting richer because they're the only ones will see Japan as a unique alternative instead of a pricier more boring option among several in East Asia.

[Mulboyne]

There's a lot to what SJ says above but Japan does have a couple of edges. The Yomiuri got around to translating their own article and included a bit I left out:

The agency moved to have the general meeting of the London-based International Bar Association in 2014 held in Japan, which will bring over 5,000 legal professionals. Australia also was in the running, but the agency made a strong appeal to the association's board members, who vote for the host city, and managed to receive letters of recommendation from Prime Minister Taro Aso and lawyers associations in South Korea and other countries. In February, Japan won the vote to host the event for the first time, and by a large margin.

What probably helped them win is the perception that Japan is a safe, developed country with a good infrastructure. This can change, however, as 1995 showed when a combination of the Kobe earthquake, Tokyo sarin gas attack and the strong yen drove out a good number of expats and capped visitor numbers. And Cyka's point about the treatment of international delegates is important: it only takes a small amount of word-of-mouth like that to swing votes against you.

What is probably galling for the Agency is that the targets weren't completely out of reach when they were set. Visitor numbers were going up without Japan really doing anything on account of growing Asian prosperity and the weak yen allowing a lot of first-time visitors to try Japan out without breaking the bank. Australians pretty much found skiing in Hokkaido with no help from the locals.

Nevertheless, wandering around London, which depends a good deal on tourism, it's easy to see where there is still a gulf of understanding and experience. Whole swathes of London are given over to tourists in a way you just don't see in Tokyo. Partly for language reasons, there's no great theatre or cabaret experience for foreigners compared with London's West End or New York's Broadway. Tourists will also go to see ballet, opera and concerts as well as Premiership football matches, Wimbledon and other major sporting events in the capital but Tokyo can only really boast Disneyland, Summer Sonic (both in Chiba) a couple of sumo tournaments and some horse racing events as major international draws. By and large, everything on offer in Tokyo is designed for the local audience first and foremost, even including the likes of Asakusa and Akihabara. That's what made the fuss over rowdy behaviour at Tsukiji so absurd. Tourist operators were driving ever-increasing numbers to a destination which wasn't equipped to deal with them and had serious reservations about whether it wanted them at all.

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]I missed the March data but April saw a 19.7% decline y-o-y for a 9th consecutive month of declines. Outward bound travel was up 1.1% y-o-y.

[Cyka UchuuJin]

I missed the March data but April saw a 19.7% decline y-o-y for a 9th consecutive month of declines. Outward bound travel was up 1.1% y-o-y.

thanks to swine flu, that 1.1% increase is gonna sharply go the other direction.

[Takechanpoo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPZqF0AKJq4

(Mod Edit: embedding is disabled so you'll need to click on the link instead)

[YT]tPZqF0AKJq4[/YT]

[Greji]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPZqF0AKJq4

Take, they only list three reasons that fgs come to Japan.
1. Shopping
2. Sightseeing and/or the study of Culture/history
3. Spa or relaxation.

WTF? Doesn't anyone come here to get laid anymore? I must be getting old...

[IkemenTommy]

WTF? Doesn't anyone come here to get laid anymore? I must be getting old...

People here aren't fucking anymore, remember?

[Greji]

People here aren't fucking anymore, remember?

Speak for yourself Tommy.....