Efforts to Sell "Japan outside Tokyo" Key to Luring Tourists in 2020

Tokyo, Jan. 28 (Jiji Press)--While the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games are likely to pour a large number of visitors into Japan this summer, efforts to market "a Japan outside Tokyo" are likely to hold key to luring tourists throughout 2020. This month, the Japan Tourism Agency and the Japan National Tourism Organization kicked off the "Your Japan 2020" campaign, which is aimed at promoting Japan-bound tourism basically unrelated to the Tokyo Games, in timing or geographically. The campaign introduces, for example, travel enabling visitors to experience life in rural areas or make local traditional dishes and also offers foreign visitors free airline tickets to domestic destinations by collaborating with airline operators. Meanwhile, local governments are expecting that the quadrennial sports event will help stimulate tourism outside Tokyo. "A stay in Fukushima Prefecture may be an option when hotels in Tokyo are fully booked," said an official in charge of tourism at the government of the northeastern Japan prefecture. "We want to sell to visitors in Tokyo how Sapporo is attractive," said an official working on tourism at the government of the northern Japan city, where the Olympic marathon and walk race events will be held. The tourism industry in the Kyushu region also hopes that tourists visiting Japan for the Tokyo Games will spend time in the southwestern region, hit by a plunge in the number of tourists from South Korea due to strained Tokyo-Seoul relations. "We want to make Fukuoka a diverse city so it can attract tourists from Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States and Australia," said an official of the Fukuoka Convention & Visitors Bureau. However, there are concerns that the number of ordinary tourists may decline during the Olympic and Paralympic period because of expected surges in accommodation fees and airline tickets. In addition, sporting events will be concentrated in the metropolitan area and the period is also much shorter than that for the Rugby World Cup championship held in Japan last year, reducing opportunities for areas outside Tokyo to reap a windfall. "No tailwind is likely to blow outside Tokyo," said an official in the hotel industry in Oita, a city in Kyushu. END