A New Tourism Authority for Japan

Japan’s best-kept secret is probably its success to attract more foreign travelers to the country over the last decade. To further boost Japan’s tourism, the incumbent government decided to proceed with a new tourism body, the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA), which will be in charge of achieving Japan’s target of 20 million travelers by 2020.

If we all know about Japan’s high tech feats, the country’s success as a tourism nation has certainly been less emphasized. But Japan’s Yokoso campaign launched in 2003 is one of Japan’s biggest success stories of the decade.

From 1990 to 2000, foreign tourist arrivals grew by 47 percent; however, from 2000 to 2007, the total number of foreign travelers jumped from 4.76 to 8.35 million, a stunning 75.4 percent growth.

According to Japan National Tourist Organization data, tourism continued to grow from January to August 2008, albeit at a slightly more modest rate of 7 percent.

The creation of the Japan Tourism Agency, which took officially its duties on October 1, will be charged to look at achieving the goal of 10 million foreign travelers by 2010 and even 20 million by 2020.