Tokyo works to attract Southeast Asian tourists

The Tokyo Metropolita Government is working to attract more overseas tourists to the area, particularly visitors from Southeast Asia.

The efforts include publicizing sightseeing spots in the Tokyo area and aim to jump start the local economy.

The Tokyo government also plans to organize business meetings with local travel agencies in Jakarta and Hanoi. More than 30 companies such as travel agencies, hotels and home appliance retailers in Japan will colaborate on the project in fiscal 2013 and 2014.

The goal is to bring tourists to Tokyo from other Asian cities that have seen a rise in their wealthy and middle classes thanks to expanding economies.

Information will be distributed not only on luxury hotels and high-end restaurants, but also on ways to travel on a budget. The guides will feature information, for example, on low-priced gyudon beef bowl restaurants.

According to the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank group member, overseas travel becomes a viable activity for countries when per-capita gross domestic product reaches $3,000. Indonesia's per capita GDP is around $3,500. For Vietnamese in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, it stands at around $3,000.

The Tokyo government hopes to organize similar activities in other countries such as India and the Philippines from fiscal 2015. Tokyo has already run campaigns to promote its tourism by organizing similar business meetings in Europe, the U.S. and parts of East Asia.

According to Tokyo's own estimate, overseas visitors to the metropolitan area, including for business trips, was 5.94 million in fiscal 2010, and 4.1 million in fiscal 2011.

Despite the sharp drop in visitor numbers following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, people from countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand increasingly see Tokyo as a tourist destination. The weakening yen is also expected to help attract visitors to the capital.

Community services

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government hopes to pull in 15 million visitors annually by 2020.

Communities in teh metropolitan area are also working on ways to attract tourists from across Asia.

For instance, the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau will organize a series of events in cooperation with shop owners in Capital.

The first of these will be a free community walking tour of the Harajuku and Omotesando districts, in collaboration with Harajuku Omotesando Keyaki-Kai, a group of about 500 retail businesses in the area. The tour will high-light the unique buildings and subculture found in the fashionable Tokyo shopping neighborhoods.

The organization is also distributing 4000 free copies of its official guidebook at the information desk set up within the Omotesando Hills shopping complex.

The agency chose the area as its first project because many foreign tourists say that shopping is often the biggest reason for visiting Japan.

Resource: The Nikkei Weekly