M.C. : Welcome back. We are going to begin the Panel Discussion which forms the latter half of this International Tourism Exchange Symposium. Let me first introduce the panelists on the stage.
Mr. Tomoki Ido, Secretary General "Rekishi kaido" Promotional Council. Mr. Ido was Secretary General of the Council for Promotion of the "Rekishi-kaido" Concept when it was first established and has been assigned to his present position after a period acting as Deputy Secretary General.
The next panelist is Ms. Emi Uehara, who is the General Director of the Biwako Hall Planning Bureau in Shiga Prefecture, as well as a member of the Shiga Prefecture Education Commission. Transferring from the Ministry of Labor to Shiga Prefectural Government, she was appointed as the first female director of a public art museum in Japan. She obtained her current position through the Director of the Department of Commerce, Industry and Labor.
Finally, Mr. Yoichiro Shimizu, Director, Marketing Development Department, Kansai Regional Headquarters, Japan Travel Bureau (JTB). Mr. Shimizu serves as JTB's point man in matters involving regional development, large scale infrastructure projects, large events and conventions in the Kansai region.
Professor Abe will continue with the coordination of Part ?.
Prof. Abe : Thank you. I would like to begin the panel discussion. As introduced in the opening address of this symposium, there is a program in existence called the "Welcome Plan 21" which was formulated by the Ministry of Transport. This program is in contrast to the "Ten Million Plan" which the Ministry previously initiated. The "Ten Million Plan" intended to boost the number of Japanese traveling abroad to more than 10,000,000 and it reached its goal in a short space of time. According to our previous speaker, this year may record as many as 17,000,000 travelers abroad.
On the contrary, "Welcome Plan 21" is a plan for the expansion of foreign travelers to Japan, aiming at 7,000,000 foreign tourists in the year 2005, 10 years from now. The key topic of this symposium is what we can do to help reach this target and as is mentioned in the welcome message. Kobe City has already sponsored a similar symposium directed at conventions and traditional culture and resources in order to promote inbound travel.
It is often discussed today that inbound travel or the accepting of foreign tourists to the country should be encouraged in order to revitalize local communities, not just cities, and that it has become an era of exchange, by which we mean people are moving around the world more, rather than settling down. Nowadays, things are functioning on a global basis - information, people, communications. This being the case, how can a local community demonstrate its charm and appeal, and indeed its very existence, not only to its country, but also to the world? You will see the expression "sustainable" in the pamphlet, and I think that this problem overlaps with that of the realization of sustainability when globalizing. Today we have invited three well-informed panelists, whose speeches will be of much more interest to you than my vague introduction. Let's listen to their opinions and think together about how international tourism should be developing.
The first speaker is Mr. Ido who is involved in the "Rekishi kaido" project. As it happens, today's Nikkei newspaper has produced a detailed profile of Mr. Ido in its broad Kansai region version. Participants who have not yet read it will understand his points more clearly on doing so later.
Mr. Ido, please.
Mr. Ido : Thank you very much for inviting me today. In short, the Rekishi-kaido is a network of
