Guest's Address
Takeshi Nishikawa
Director of Planning Department
Kinki District Transport Bureau, Ministry of Transport
Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen;
It is my great pleasure to have this opportunity of extending to you a few words of greeting.
With the 21st century close at hand, tourism has become essential part of citizens' daily lives, playing a leading role in creating jobs, vitalizing local economies, and promoting international friendship and understanding.
According to the statistics of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the number of annual international tourists has reached 560 million and they spend as much as 380 billion dollars. Because of the industry's rapid growth rate, the number of international tourists is predicted to reach 1 billion in the beginning of the 21st century.
Meanwhile, in Japan, until 1970, the number of inbound tourists visiting Japan from abroad surpassed the level of outbound tourists. Currently, however, the levels of in-and outbound tourists have reversed. Moreover, there is a great imbalance between their levels: whereas 17 million Japanese annually visit overseas, only 3.8 million or 20% the level of outbound tourists visit Japan. We regard this imbalance as being a great problem from the viewpoint of international tourism exchange.
According to a certain governmental agency that held a survey regarding foreign people's image on Japan, many overseas people have changed their image on Japan after visiting the country. Whereas the greatest number of people who have not been to Japan answered that their image of Japan was a modern and industrialized country, the majority of those who have been here said that they like Japan because people were kind to them. This indicates that Japan should encourage as many overseas people as possible to visit the country and have friendly exchange with local people.
With this view, the Ministry of Transport has prepared the Welcome Plan 21 (Doubling Visitors Arrival Plan) with the aim of doubling the number of inbound tourists by 2005. Under this Plan, the Ministry will implement various measures, including cost reduction of domestic tourism, improvement of services to overseas tourists, and the formation of special international tourism zones. In March 1997, to the National Diet, the Ministry will submit a bill, proposing the introduction of an act of international tourism promotion through the diversification of tourist regions for overseas tourists. Through such measures as an increase in a tourism-related budget and taxation revision, the Ministry intends to promote international tourism.
It is essential, however, that the private sector and local communities combine their efforts together with the national government to promote international tourism, making effective use of tourism resources unique to each respective locality.
I sincerely hope that today's Symposium will be enlightening to all present; by studying success stories in the Asia-Pacific region, I believe that we can review present state of international tourism exchange in our locality.
Finally, I would like to express my sincerest wish that the Symposium will be a driving force for the international tourism promotion. Thank you for your attention.
