and attracting more tourists to Japan is to reflect upon whether we are sufficiently attractive as travelers.
Takada: Thank you very much. Mr. Kanzaki has emphasized that travelers must do something for the benefit of the locality they visit. I also think that is a very important point.
At the same time, hosts must also give sufficient consideration to guests. As stated in the opening greetings of this Symposium, hospitality must be enhanced to attract tourists. The original meaning of "motenashi," or hospitality, was "to do something together," although the current definition of the word implies having guests spend an enjoyable time.
Mr. Kanzaki's speech has reminded me of Hirano Art Museum in Akita Prefecture. Mr. Hirano, a wealthy landowner in Akita, supported Tsuguji Fujita, a celebrated artist, for several years. The Art Museum now boasts the world's largest collection of Fujita's works, attracting many tourists to Akita. Owing to the patronage of the Hirano family, the artist was able to lead an easy life, painting whenever he was in the mood. At that time, however, none predicted that several decades later, his collection would attract many tourists to Akita.
Our next speaker is Dr. Inose, a historian, who is studying British history of the 19th century, when Cook Travel Agency started its service. Dr. Inose, please.
Inose: My name is Inose. Nice to see you. Mr. Takada mentioned Cook Travel Agency, a large international tourist agency founded by Thomas Cook during the Victorian age. Cook Travel Agency introduced a discount tour to the world exposition in 1 851 with the catchphrase: More travelers, lower travel costs. In fact, Cook Travel Agency was the first to commercialize tourism, making it popular first in Britain and then worldwide.
In 1872, Cook Travel Agency sent tourists to Japan. Studying the catch copies used at that time, we can discover what sort of images Western people of that time had regarding Japan. Japan was then advertised as "a country of the rising sun," and the major interest of travelers was the contrast between modernized Japan and its traditional cultures.
In 1894. John Mason Cook, Thomas Cook's eldest son, established a branch office in Yokohama. Regarding their business, John Cook disagreed with his father's approach. While Thomas tried to popularize tourism, increasing the number of tourists, John intended to offer high-quality travel services to a limited number of people. When John established their Yokohama branch office, he was given great support by Hirobumi Ito, then Prime Minister of Japan. Until the branch office was destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, Cook Travel Agency continued sending tourists to Japan.
It was through the service of Cook Travel Agency that many celebrated British people and other Western people visited Japan, including Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936), novelist and Nobel Prize winner. At that time, the number of inbound tourists surpassed that of outbound tourists. Today, the balance of in- and outbound tourists has completely reversed.
As professor Takada stated earlier, the major factor in this imbalance is that Japan is not attractive to overseas people. To increase the number of inbound tourists, we have to make Japan more attractive. But how can we do so? I agree with Professor Takada that cheap measures will not work.
In my view, we should not depend on the national government to address this problem. In the UK, the Thatcher administration promoted the centralization of political and economical powers in London. As a result, the presence of the strong national government deteriorated local vitality; paradoxically, however, national concern was focused on local issues during the Thatcher age.
Today, many Japanese people are interested in what policies will be effected by the new Prime Minister, Mr. Blair. Although he belongs to an opposition party, the Labour Party, in my opinion, he is unlikely to abandon Thatcherism.
As I have mentioned, during the Thatcher administration, local regions in the UK became more dependent on London. Accordingly, local residents became aware that they could never compete with London simply by inviting industries to their localities. Today, British localities are competing not only with London, but also many other cities in the EU. In this "borderless" competition, each locality is striving to promote its presence by making full use of its cultural assets. To revitalize localities, British people know that they should use their cultural heritages rather than industries. In this sense, we have much to learn from the UK.
Finally. I would like to emphasize that in the UK, people have changed their sense of values, placing more emphasis on tourism and culture than on industry or business, as they strive to redevelop their country through tourism. In fact, the growth rate of British tourism industry is as high as 6%.
Let me now explain how their sense of values has changed: during the 18th century, British people admired large cities and urban life. However, they began to praise the countryside in novels and poems that glorified rural life. These trends were maintained by various movements and campaigns, including the National Trust and Open Space Movements, which experienced a boom during the latter half of the 19th century. In other words, British people deliberately created a new sense of values, preferring the rural life to urban life.
For instance, there is a hilly countryside called the
