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Thursday, July 10, 2003
Japan aims to spend $167M to attract foreign tourists
By Jessica B. Natad
JAPAN has joined other countries in Asia in the competition to attract foreign tourists.
In fact, the Japanese government has allotted some Y20 billion or $167 million for its “Visit Japan Campaign,” which was launched last April.
In contrast, the Philippines’ budget for tourism promotion this year is only $600,000.
However, Japan’s large tourism promotion budget is not a threat to the Philippines’ tourism industry, according to Department of Tourism 7 Regional Director Dawnie Roa.
“Every country wants to become a tourist destination, especially Japan, which now has an ailing economy. Capitalizing on the tourism industry would help it recover from the crisis. Japan’s market is different from the Philippines’. So are the markets of other countries in Asia,” she told Sun.Star.
Investment representatives of Southeast Asian countries Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam earlier expressed interest in becoming major tourist destinations too.
According to a document furnished Sun.Star by the Japan External Trade Organization, Japan’s cognizance of the potential of the tourism industry was triggered by the forecast of the World Tourism Organization that the number of international travelers worldwide would increase at an annual rate of 4.2 percent between 2000 and 2010.
By region, the number of international travelers to East Asia and the Pacific region would increase at an annual rate of 7.7 percent, higher than anywhere else.
Japan aims to boost the number of its visitors to eight million by 2007 from 5.2 million last year.
The Philippines received 1.93 million foreign tourists last year, up 7.6 percent from the number in 2001.
(July 10, 2003 issue)
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