Tourism strategy towards 2020: Promotion of tourism and the revitalization of regional areas

Abstract

The Japanese government has positioned tourism as part of Japan's regional revitalization strategy and economic growth strategy, and has announced its intention to increase annual numbers of foreign tourists to 30 million. However, the easing of existing tourism-related regulations and change in Japan's readiness to accept foreign tourists, looking towards increasing the depth of tourism in the nation, will be essential for a tourism strategy which seeks to compete with other countries around the world. This chapter provides an overview of relevant issues and presents a number of proposals. This chapter also introduces the next two chapters by two experts examining the concept of Japanese-style destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and the issue of minpaku, paid accommodations using private houses or apartments, to provide suggestions for concrete policy orientations in both areas.