Panel Discussion
"Making Full Use of Local Cultures to Promote International Tourism"
| Coordinator : | Masatoshi Takada |
| Professor, (Department of Consumer Information) |
| Mukogawa Women's University |
| Panelists : | Noritake Kanzaki |
| Folklorist |
| Kumie Inose |
| Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters, Konan University |
| Toshio Hirono |
| City Planning Consultant |
| Seungdam Choi, Ph.D. |
| Director of Tourism Policy Research Dept., Korea |
| Tourism Research Institute (KTRI), Republic of Korea |
| Cynthia C. Lazo |
| Director, Bureau of Domestic Tourism Promotion(BDTP), |
| Philippine Department of Tourism, Philippines |
Takada: Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Takada. Today, we had presentations of guest speakers from Asia concerning their approaches to the promotion of international tourism by making full use of regional features. So, it is time to discuss what Japan should do, in regard to today's theme: Making Full Use of Local Cultures to Promote International Tourism.
First of all, I would like to remind you of the greetings given by a representative of the Kinki Bureau, the Ministry of Transport: he stated that Japanese government intends to double the number of overseas tourists visiting Japan towards the beginning of the 21st century. Looking back, the Japanese government liberalized overseas travels in 1964. In that year, there were only 130,000 Japanese tourists visiting overseas countries. Today, the number of outbound tourists has increased to nearly 17 million, approximately 130 times the level in 1964. This remarkable growth of tourism is attributable to Japan's high economic growth; Japanese people have earned much money in manufacturing and overseas trade, and have spent that money on overseas trips.
Meanwhile, the number of overseas tourists visiting Japan remains 3.8 million, despite the rapid growth of international tourism in other parts of the world. If you compare this figure, 3.8 million, with Japan's population of 120 million, inbound tourists account for only 3%. I wondered if there is any other country on earth that receives as few inbound tourists as Japan, and found that Bhutan has very few inbound tourists. Having a population of 1.6 million, Bhutan limits the number of overseas tourists to 2,000. Accordingly, many tourists who desire to enter Bhutan are not admitted. On the other hand. Japan promotes tourism; yet, Japan has only 3.8 million inbound tourists. Even if this figure is doubled, it will be only 7.6 million, a level that has already been achieved in Singapore, with a population of 2.6 million.
Why does Japan have so few inbound tourists? The answer is very simple: Japan is not attractive to overseas people. How can we make our country more attractive, then? I do not think that any cheap measures would work. I do not mean to speak ill of Japan or the Japanese government, but the majority of recent incidents reported overseas are discouraging people from visiting Japan. After the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, we had the Aum Incidents, and a series of scandals involving corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. It seems to me that Japanese politician, bureaucrats, and businesspersons disseminate negative images of Japan worldwide.
Moreover, the Japanese government is playing a major role in destroying regional tourism resources; for instance, the government is destroying a beautiful lagoon in Isahaya Bay by reclaiming part of the Bay, although the reclamation seems to be unnecessary. Similar destruction is under way in Lakes Shinjiko and Nakaumi in Shimane Prefecture. These lakes are blessed with abundant marine products, including sea bass, eel, and shellfish called coribula, all of them valuable ingredients for Japanese cuisine.
I recall that in his presentation, an Indonesian guest speaker emphasized the vital importance of environmental preservation for promoting tourism. Today's discussion theme concerns local cultures, and I believe that each local culture is influenced by the environment of the respective locality. Accordingly, we must change the current governmental policy that, under the title of "regional development," eradicates local natural assets; we must solidify our resolution to preserve and even enhance the natural environment. Otherwise, I do not believe that the Welcome Plan 21 (Doubling Visitors Arrival Plan) will be successful.
In the keynote presentation, the speaker introduced a tourism promotion attempt in Amagasaki City, making full use of an alleged tomb of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, a celebrated playwright of the 18th century. Although the tomb has not yet been proven to be Chikamatsu's, the City makes full use of it in regional vitalization programs. The city and residents, for instance, constructed a theater; promote academic studies on Chikamatsu in universities and institutes; hold series of lectures on this great playwright; install Chikamatsu corners at libraries, erected a monument; and even sell Chikamatsu rice crackers for tourists. There are several community groups associated with this writer: Chikamatsu fan club, Association of Chikamatsu songs, and children's puppet show club. Moreover, the municipal Piccolo Theater and the Tsukashin Commercial Complex make full use of the writer to attract audience/shoppers.
Amagasaki City is now building friendly relations with Stratford-upon-Avon in the UK, known as Shakespeare's birthplace. I hope that Dr. Inose will later tell us something about Stratford-upon-Avon, a mecca for theater fans throughout the world.
