Mr. Wada : Thank you very much for inviting me to today's International Tourism Exchange Symposium. Let me give you a brief explanation of the organization. As mentioned previously, the Asia-Pacific Tourism Exchange Center was established in September last year, exactly one year ago, during which time it has already conducted two surveys on tourism promotion concerning the Silk Road. It also hosted the WTO's "Asia Pacific Tourism Week" last year and only last week organized an urban tourism symposium, in conjunction with the "Public and Private Regular Meeting on Tourism between Japan and Canada" which was held in Kobe. Today the organization is hosting this symposium to promote international tourism exchange and realize progress made so far.
According to the latest international tourism statistics, worldwide tourists traveling to other countries number 560 million and I have heard that their consumption accounts for l0% of the world GDP.
At the time when overseas travel for tourism was liberalized in Japan in 1964, the number of Japanese tourists traveling abroad was 120,000-130,000 but last year it reached to 15 million, indicating an increase of well over 100 times in the past 30 years. The tourism industry may already be labeled the key industry but we realize that it will become an even more important industry in the 21st century, both nationally and internationally. However, this does not imply a mere development of the industry, but also a promotion of international understanding through the personal experience of touching different lives and cultures. In this sense too, the Ministry of Transport has a desire to encourage international tourism exchange.
Although I said 15 million previously, it is predicted that Japanese tourists will reach 17 million this year. On the contrary, the figure for foreign tourists to Japan has only reached a peak of 3.5 million so far, and last year the number was only 3.3 million. There is such a large imbalance that the Ministry of Transport considers it to be significant in terms of tourism exchange.
An international institute once conducted a survey on the image of Japan. The result showed the main image of Japanese people was that they were industrious and hardworking while kindness ranked number six among foreigners who had not been to Japan. With people who had actually visited Japan, however, kindness ranked as the number one image. This convinced us of the importance of encouraging them to come to Japan.
Based on this concept the Ministry of Transport is promoting a policy named "Welcome Plan 21." It is because we see so few foreign tourists coming to Japan, compared to Japanese tourists going abroad that we are promoting the plan, in cooperation with private sectors, by way of various financial and tax measures, with the target of doubling the number of foreigners welcomed from 3.5 million to 7 million over 10 years.
The major aim of the Japanese Government is, with the assistance of the Japan National Tourist Organization, to draw in many foreign tourists through active advertisement of Japan's charms which foreigners are at present unaware of, and to promote tourist attractions in various places in Japan. In this way both foreigners and Japanese can reach out to foreign cultures and ways of thinking, deepening their understanding and ultimately minimizing cultural and economic conflict.
As today's symposium is on international tourism exchange through travel, it is a timely theme just in line with the Ministry of Transport's "Welcome Plan 21" and we are expecting it to be both very informative and constructive with a keynote speech given by Professor Shirahata, followed by a panel discussion which will be coordinated by Professor Abe. I want to conclude my greeting with wishing great success for this symposium for the sake of further promotion of international exchange. Thank you.
