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BusinessWeek on the low numbers of Japanese headed to Beijing Olympics

BusinessWeek correspondent Hiroko Tashiro has a new piece on why Japanese tourists are not heading to the Beijing Olympics in droves. Tashiro makes the point that negative media coverage of China has been the norm over the past year, especially following the poisoned gyoza scandal. Of course, the manner in which the protests in Tibet and the Olympic flame relay were dealt with also weigh in as factors.

But, we have to expect there to be some mismanagement on the business end as well. Tashiro gives an interesting, though brief, look into how the ticket situation has been bungled by the combination of the IOC, JOC and Japanese travel agencies. Here’s one illustration:

In the case of judo, for instance, [ANA Sales] has 50 tickets for the preliminary rounds but 10 for the finals. “You can’t tell a customer to watch only the early rounds and then go back to the hotel to see the finals,” says Sawaki. “It’s a hard sell.”

One factor not mentioned in the article, however, is that overseas travel in general (not just to China) is down this year. This points to economic troubles amongst those who would usually be saving up to make such a special trip. Higher travel prices and stagnant wages are taking their toll as overseas trips are being put off. Domestic travel destinations may benefit as a result, but electronics firms had probably counted on selling a lot more digital cameras to people heading off to the Olympics.

Most likely there is a balance of factors. China’s image has taken a battering in the Japanese media and people have less disposable income. Perhaps other residents figure they just might be able to wait until 2016 to see the games in Tokyo, as the city is now offering what Reuters calls a “blueprint” for large cities planning to host the Olympics in the 21st century.

Record number of foreign tourists visit Japan in January-June 2008 period

In 2007, 8.35 million foreign tourists visited Japan. According to data released today by the Japan National Tourist Organization, the first half of 2008 saw about 4.33 million foreign tourists enter the country, which was a 10% gain on 2007 figures.

The Japanese government has very clearly stated its goal to continue seeing an increase in the number of tourists coming to Japan from foreign shores. As we covered previously, the government has set targets of 10 million visitors by 2010 and 20 million by 2020.

In terms of numbers, visitors from South Korea made up the largest group, with 1.32 million visiting Japan from January to June That figure was up 8.1% on the year. The largest percentage rise was seen from Hong Kong, which sent an increase of 36.7% more travelers, to hit 267,000. Read more

Japan looking for 20 million foreign tourists annually by 2020

A very short piece in Friday’s Nikkei tells us that the Japanese government’s tourism promotion panel has set a goal of having 20 million foreign tourists visit Japan each year by 2020. In order to explore potential methods for meeting this goal, the panel will set up a working group by the end of July.

The panel’s previously stated goal of having 10 million tourists visit Japan each year by 2010 is still posted on their website. In 2007, 8.35 million tourists visit Japan. The jump to 20 million would be a 140% increase. There are also supposed to be 60,000 new landing slots opening up for international flights at Narita and Haneda airports over the coming few years. Might more new landing slots, and perhaps runways, be on the way?

The Nikkei’s piece ends with this short paragraph:

One idea likely to be considered is making traffic signs and displays at tourist sites available in several languages, as well as employing more multilingual tour guides.

Not exactly revolutionary. Hopefully the panel itself will have some ideas better than the low bar being set here.

Japan’s most popular spot for foreign tourists is…

Quick - what is Japan’s most popular spot for foreign tourists? I have to admit being slightly surprised by the results of this survey by the Japan National Tourist Agency. The first ideas that came into my head were the Imperial Palace or Asakusa, but neither one of those appeared in the top five. Akihabara? Nope.

Apparently, the most popular spot for foreign tourists in Japan is Shinjuku, which held the top spot for the third year running. It was followed by Osaka, Kyoto, Ginza and Shibuya. It’s a bit odd that three of the top five are neighborhoods in Tokyo, while two are whole cities, but this could reflect the answers given more than anything else.

Perhaps Shinjuku wins by default, with so many international hotels. The JNTO also cited Kabukicho as a popular tourist spot, though that’s always on the list of places that natives often tell people to avoid. According to the agency, Kyushu was popular with tourists from South Korea, which makes geographic sense. At the same time, tourists from China mentioned Mt Fuji, Osaka and Kyoto as places they visited or planned to visit. American and British tourists noted Nara, Kamakura and Hiroshima as places they intended to check out.

On a side note, for those planning a visit to Japan next month, it looks like the end of the month will be high time for hanami, or cherry blossom viewing. The JNTO has a page devoted to forecasting the blossoming of the trees, and hopefully this year’s prediction will be more accurate than the debacle we saw last year.

Nikkei: Japan at less than 10% of Global GDP for first time since 1982

That headline is only the beginning of the bad news in Thursday’s edition of the Nikkei, though it may be indicative of what 2008 has in store for the economy. Essentially, the Nikkei is reporting that in 2006, Japan’s share of global GDP stood at 9.1 percent, which is the first time in 26 years that Japan as accounted for less than 10 percent of global GDP. According to revised figures published Wednesday by the Cabinet Office, Japan’s GDP grew 2.4% in real terms, but fell 4% in nominal terms in 2006. The global economy grew at about an 8% pace in that year.

In another story, we learn that Japan’s IPO market is shrinking, and the blame is placed on…you guessed it: A lack of auditors and stricter regulations. As the Nikkei put it:

Before listing on the Mothers market [for startups] of the Tokyo Stock Exchange earlier this year, a manufacturer asked about 200 business partners to submit reports confirming that it has “no relations whatsoever with crime syndicates and other antisocial forces.”

The Nikkei also points out that the Tokyo Stock Exchange currently has no way to verify the veracity of a given firm’s claim to have no ties to “antisocial forces.”

Then, we see that according to a Nikkei survey, the percentage of CEOs who feel that Japan’s economy is expanding has fallen from 79% in October to 64% in December. 96% of the 134 CEOs surveyed said that the fall in housing starts is hurting the economy.

Finally, two stories we haven’t seen in English yet:

1) In fiscal 2006, Japan’s personal savings rate fell to 3.2 percent of income, and now stands at an historical low. The Cabinet Office asserts that wages increased 1.8% that year. Japan’s savings level peaked at 11.4% of income back in fiscal 1997.

2) The Japan Travel Board announced that in 2007, the number of Japanese traveling overseas decreased by 1.1 percent, showing the first fall in 4 years. This is something we will probably have to get back to, but what stands out to us in the report is JTB saying that fears over food safety in China have put negative pressure on the number of people willing to travel there.

However, there was no word on how fears over food safety have affected tourism to Hokkaido…

The Last Resort Travel Cafe?

According to their website, a firm named “Last Resort”, which offers study and work abroad programs, has teamed up with another company named Travel Cafe to open a “Last Resort Travel Cafe” in Tokyo’s Kamedo Station.

They look like they know what they’re doing, but the name “Last Resort” strikes me as odd for a firm that helps people seek work and study opportunities abroad. Is the Bank of Japan their shareholder of last resort?

The best part of Travel Cafe’s site is the picture of Juan Valdez. He sure is getting younger. Has he been rebranded?

JAL and ANA cooperating; Hell still hot

Japan Air Lines and All Nippon Airways do not have a history of working together, but they finally done something for the good of the customer by launching a joint electronic ticketing service for international flights. This means that one could take a domestic flight from Kochi (or some other local airport) on ANA to Narita and change to a JAL flight without a paper ticket. Good news…

…However, JTB says that there will be fewer Japanese traveling internationally during this year’s late April/early May Golden Week holidays, which means there won’t be quite as many people to put that new ticketing system to use. Last year, the holidays fell in such a way that it was easy to arrange a full week off. This year, however, two working days are stuck in the middle of the holidays, making it a little more difficult for salarymen to get that precious time off. This should, however, be interpreted as good news for domestic tourism.

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