produce excellent clothing, but because there are many residents of these cities who truly understand and appreciate excellent fashion. Milan has La Scala Theater, while Paris has many other theaters, where elegant fashions can be worn. If you have no opportunity to wear fashionable clothing and to receive other people's comments, what is the use of possessing such fashionable clothing?
In other words, with the progress of electronic media, coded information will be accessible anywhere on earth. On the other hand, people will give greater value to information that can be obtained only through firsthand experiences.
In the past, many Japanese people longed for something exotic, something of foreign origin. Accordingly, foreign landscapes and architecture reproduced in Japan have attracted many domestic tourists. With the progress of international exchange, however, more and more Japanese people will prefer to go abroad and to see the original architecture, rather than that reproduced in Japan.
Although I have only limited knowledge regarding Huis Ten Bosch, a Dutch theme park in Nagasaki Prefecture, I believe that more and more Japanese people prefer visiting the real one in the Netherlands to its replica in Nagasaki. I understand that historically Nagasaki has a special relationship with the Netherlands as Japan's sole trade port during Japan's national seclusion period (1639-1854). As a result of current deregulation trends, however, flight tickets will be increasingly affordable, making it still easier to go abroad. Accordingly, to promote tourism, I believe that we have to enhance the originality of respective localities. In other words, future success of tourism development depends on how much you can persuade tourists that unless they actually visit a certain locality, they can never obtain the "real" information or experience.
As the video I have just shown has indicated, a new Kabuki theater called "Shochikuza" was recently built in Osaka, with the aim of reviving Kabuki in the Kansai region, which once prospered with many theaters. "Shochikuza" is extremely popular, attracting a great many Kabuki fans. I recall that about 20 years ago, I held a survey regarding the objectives of going to the theater at the Kabuki Theater in Tokyo. At that time, Kabuki was a boom, fueled by several landmark events, including the ceremony to celebrate Onoe Kikugoro's assumption of his father's stage name. At the entrance of the Kabuki Theater, I handed out questionnaire forms, asking the theatergoers to write down their main purpose for visiting the theater.
To my surprise, of about 1,700 people at the theater, only about 20% answered that they were there to see the Kabuki performances. The majority answered that they came to see their favorite actors. This indicates that these enthusiastic fans might also go to see performances other than Kabuki, if their favorite actors were on stage.
Some answered that they were there to see their masters of samisen, a traditional Japanese banjo-like musical instrument, or nagauta, ballad chanted to the accompaniment of samisen. Some of them left the theater before the performance ended, because their sole purpose of being there was to please their masters by paying a tribute. It is a traditional Japanese social custom to pay tribute to one's masters whenever they are on stage.
To my surprise, there were a few people who were at the theater for matchmaking purposes. Every day, there was at least one pair of potential couples accompanied by their families and go-between. A young man and woman were introduced to each other in the foyer. Since the foyer is busy and crowded during intermissions, they had this first meeting while the actors were on the stage.
In other words, these people were in the theater building, but did not go to watch a performance. Needless to say, they had to buy tickets, and I am quite sure that they had top-price tickets, since the first meeting of potential couples is regarded as something special. This means that there were several vacant seats near the stage on the first floor. I am sure that the theater did not mind this, as long as the tickets were sold.
If it was just a fancy atmosphere that was desired for the first meeting of a young man and woman, they could use a hotel. They, however, preferred the theater foyer, because it was exciting for them to have this important meeting that was likely to determine the rest of their lives, while hearing music and the voices of actors through the door, imagining what was happening on the stage, and trying to concentrate on their meeting.
This case indicates that people gather at an event for many different purposes. If you organize an event by yourself, you will understand that it is not sufficient to create exciting programs; it is also important that the neighborhood of the event site is developed so as to be attractive.
Suppose you are in Paris and go to see a show at Moulin Rouge, you are most unlikely to return to the hotel immediately after the show. You may stroll around Montmartre, and go shopping, spending a little money here and there. This is exactly what I refer to when I say that the neighborhood of an event site must also be developed to be attractive for tourists.
Many excellent events can attract a great many people, regardless of where they are held. This will not help to attract tourists to a particular locality. What is essential is to create a sort of attractiveness that is available only in one particular locality. For instance, Kaiyukan Aquarium in Osaka is very popular as a completely new kind of aquarium. Considering the current high economic growth level in other Asian countries, however, it is highly probable that other Asian cities, perhaps Beijing, will build an even more sophisticated aquarium in the coming years. How can Kaiyukan maintain its attractiveness in
