Sectional Workshop C： "Is Pulling Power in Mie Prefecture Strong or Weak?"
Instructed by Kuniko Takasaki
｡?akasaki
Firstly, when considering pulling power it is important to think about the issue of targetting, that is, what kind of visitors do you wish to have, and conversely, what type of customer isn't going to visit.
For Mie Prefecture, likely targets might be, for example, middle-aged people and seniors. The advantage of Mie prefecture is that the tourist sites here are very readily imaged. On the other hand, these days people have already experienced a lot of travel, so you will need to offer hospitality on a par with first-class tourist sites in the world. Of course another important factor is to emphasize the unique appeal of Japan, which cannot be experienced overseas.
As for attracting visitors from overseas, one target group would contain the countries in Asia, with special emphasis on China. Also, there is a need to focus on women. I feel that Mie Prefecture has a very feminine image. The sea, the mountains, and the abundance of light, combined with the sweetness of the Akafuku rice cake, make for a very feminine image, which might be something you can do a PR campaign around.
In actual terms, Mie Prefecture's pulling power was a total inflow of 46.69 million people in 1996, which was an increase of 2.4% over 1995's 45.55 million people.
Pulling power means the power to attract visitors . For tourist sites that means, of course, a given community's power to attract tourists . Matching the resources with targets and needs should be considered from many angles and in relation to customers' traits, characteristics, travel needs and so forth. Needless to say this is also true of tourism resources. Some people like theme parks, while others are attracted to traditional Japanese culture or heritage arts .
Next I'd like to talk about tourism resource utilization techniques and setting up of tourist circuits . All the tourism resources in the world would merely go to waste without superior techniques for their utilization. The significance of setting up a tourist circuit is multifaceted, for example it promotes the creation of infrastructure etc. to act as receptacles for excursion trips. Also, it's more effective to generate interest in a circuit than to try and get people excited about each resource individually.
I've discussed tourism resources in detail, but now, how do we connect those to pulling power? Here we must go into the issue of hospitality. Communities with high pulling power, I think, are distinguished by their hospitality.
Also, pulling power is not something inherently present in a tourist site. Just as there is no enjoyment in visiting someplace the residents aren't proud of, pulling power is something that is built up. Whether it's strong or weak isn't the issue. If it's weak, strengthen it. If it's strong, that doesn't mean you can relax.
About Mie Prefecture in particular, I feel that although it is relatively blessed in terms of tourism resources, as yet there is not enough of a commitment to strengthen pulling power. I haven't expanded much here on hospitality and working together with travel agencies, but that's my impressrion.
