Most Japanese local governments think it’s very important to regenerate local vitality by promoting tourism.
As you know, Japan is relatively a small country, but varying climate and history between regions, makes for a wide variety of cities to visit.
Access to and from central cities became easier with the development of transportation such as the Shinkansen. With the recognition of these strengths, tourism is ranked as an important pillar to revitalise rural areas.
While around 5.8 million tourists every year visit Australia, Japan reached a record of 10 million overseas tourists in 2013. Tokyo is hosting the Olympic Games in 2020 – we aim to get 20 million visitors that year.
We became able to go anywhere easily throughout Japan, but at the same time, we have seen the start of severe competition to attract tourists between local governments.
In addition, avoiding past mistakes of building once-popular theme parks, Japan’s local governments are looking for new ways to attract tourists without making huge budget allocations.
Apart from the basic route of “Tokyo to Kyoto”, thanks to feedback from overseas tourists, there are many other new must-sees that are becoming popular.
For example, Australian tourists rediscovered the value of the Snow Monkeys!
As well, skiing is popular among Australian tourists. We are proud of Japan’s world famous powder snow, reasonable lift tickets and accommodations with hot springs and delicious Japanese food and sake.
This is why a lot of Japanese ski resorts collaborated with local governments will participate in the Snow Travel Expo that will be held in Sydney on 17 May and Melbourne on 24 May. I hope you will visit it.