executive impact

Revitalizing the inbound tourism market

15 Comments
By Chris Betros

Japan hopes to have 20 million tourists annually visiting the country by 2020. Visitor numbers are already up, which is revitalizing the inbound tourism market. Because of this recent trend, human resources are becoming essential for businesses in the hospitality industry to stay competitive.

Many companies wish to tap into the inbound tourism market but are not sure how to go about it. One company that is in demand is Yamatogokoro, whose mission is to heat up Japan’s inbound tourism industry, according to its president, Keisuke Murayama.

Since 2007, Yamatogokoro has planned, implemented and managed the largest B2B portal site for inbound business in Japan. The company conducts training, seminars and provides consulting services to help businesses in the tourism industry. Most recently, Yamatogokoro launched Yamatogokoro Career – a job search engine specializing in inbound tourism opportunities.

Japan Today visits Murayama at his office in Shinjuku to hear more.

Is your background in the tourism industry?

Not really. After I finished school, I went to the U.S. to study business and then went to India to work for half a year as an intern with a computer software company. After that, I returned to Japan and worked for Accenture for five years. Then I started this company was established in 2007.

What are your main services?

We have four business lines. The first is a B2B portal site targeted at Japanese companies such as shops, restaurants, hotels and local governments who want to attract foreign tourists. They get information about inbound tourism from our website. Our second line is a job recruitment site for restaurants, hotels and travel agencies who need people. Our third is training for those companies. For example, we hold inbound tourism seminars concerning Thai tourists – why they come to Japan, how much they spend, how they know about Japan, and so on. We also do web marketing seminars. Our 4th business line is a consulting service for Japanese retailers, who want to attract foreign tourists but they don’t know how.

Which business line is your biggest revenue earner?

The consulting service for retailers. About 80% of our clients are looking at the Asian inbound tourism market. Department stores are our biggest clients in that area. They want to attract foreign tourists and increase revenue per customers by training their sales staff. As you know, a lot of Japanese staff cannot speak English or Chinese, and we have partner companies that can provide language services.

What about restaurants?

Besides the obvious service of having English menus, it’s important for restaurants to promote themselves to foreign tourists. But first, they have to clarify who the target customer is, for example, group tourists. How to treat customers is another thing and what kind of food to provide, such as halal menus for Muslims.

The Japanese government hopes to have 20 million tourists visiting Japan annually by 2020. Do you think that is a realistic goal?

Yes, it is. In 2014, the number increased by 27% to around 13 million. If it continues at that rate, we’ll reach 20 million by 2020, especially if visa restrictions are eased. We could easily double or triple the number of tourists from China.

What are the biggest challenges the tourism industry faces?

You have to give tourists a satisfying experience so they will come back. Beyond that, hotel capacity, infrastructure and transportation need improving. It’s hard to make hotel reservations in Tokyo sometimes. I also think it is essential that we get more tourists to go to regional areas outside the big cities.

One problem is that the Japanese government doesn’t use much foreign expertise to promote tourism. Most of the tourism staff are Japanese who are not good at communicating on a global level. We have to value the foreign perspective rather than doing promotions by ourselves, just using big Japanese advertising agencies.

What feedback do you get from tourists?

They say Japan is clean, safe and the people are nice. On the negative side, Japan is very expensive, though not as much as it used to be, due to the weak yen. The language barrier is still a big issue. Tourists want to communicate with Japanese but find it difficult. I did a survey of foreign tourists about Japanese department stores and there were a lot of complaints – the biggest one being that “Japanese sales staff ignore us.” This relates to the point I made earlier that staff can’t speak English or other languages so they tend to avoid foreign customers. That leaves a bad impression on tourists. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about “omotenashi” (anticipating a customer’s needs and providing it), but “omotenashi” means nothing in that situation.

On a positive note, tourism authorities are starting to understand more what difficulties foreign tourists face in Japan but you know the government is always slow to act. Businesses should act first.

How do you market your company?

Through seminars. We do about 20 per year, sometimes attracting 400-500 people. By doing that, we become known to potential customers. We are very active on social media, too. We do global web marketing.

Is your job seven days a week?

Sometimes I have to work on weekends because the market is growing very fast. In addition, I do a lot of wining and dining. Personal relationships are important in the hospitality industry.

How do you relax?

My wife and I like to go to restaurants or sightseeing places introduced in the Lonely Planet to understand foreign tourists' perspectives.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


15 Comments
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I can't speak about about Kanto but in Kansai I wouldn't much like to be a tourist. Yes,of course there exceptions and generally Kyoto is fairly good at taking care of the English speaker but Osaka and Kobe and even Himeji are let down somewhat.to be a Chinese tourist in Japan? I don't see many Chinese speakers here at all.Schools still don't offer practical language training in English nor do the public schools offer Chinese. To talk about revitalizing the foreign market seems strange when Japan has never really had much of a foreign tourist market to begin with.Japan is remote being an island and will never have a huge market......

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

As you know, a lot of Japanese staff cannot speak English or Chinese, and we have partner companies that can provide language services.

I went to a major department store chain to buy some cologne as a gift (before I knew the word 香水) and the perfume counter ladies couldn't fathom what it is that I wanted to buy:

Me: Cologne. Do you have cologne? (Pointing into the perfume display and gesturing putting on cologne.) Staff: Kudamono??! Me: Cologne. Men's perfume. Smells good. (Still gesturing and pointing) Staff: ??? Melon??

I'd expect this from a general information counter or in a grocery store but not from 3 women working a perfume counter.

Another: Me: Potato fried, please. McStaff: Eh?? Me: (Looking at the menu again.) Oh, fried potato. McStaff: Hai!

I usually speak Japanese but on occasion if I forget a word and have to use an English word then staff members here are just taken for a loop.

Most don't seem to have the flexibility to think or anticipate what a customer wants unless it's said in perfect Japanese.

This is what I find to be the biggest "language barrier" here in Japan. Not the lack of vocabulary or understanding of grammar.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

@speed

To be fair to the McD's staff, "potato fried" sounds very very close to カーリーポテトフライ, which is on their menu from time to time.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Businesses, Taxis, and store workers should post the Japanese translation phone number for different languages to avoid misunderstandings. English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Spanish, German, Italian ... each with a different number with a translator of that language. Most of the time, I can point to get what I want, but sometimes that just fails completely, especially in department stores.

Smartphone apps have more and more offline translation capabilities too, so having these on a tablet in the business for the most popular languages would be helpful too. Sadly, many of these applications don't support Japanese (Word Lens), yet. Google Translate does ok.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In most of the restaurants you can't taste the food because of the clouds of smoke and foul smell. Might be acceptable to mainland Chinese or Russian tourists, but Westerners are not going to appreciate it.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Thumbs down? Seriously?

Love to hear the logic behind that.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

When there's money involved intuitive fluency rises by +15 points. When professional responsibility is attached, +20 points. General information or orientation specifics, -20.

The amazing sense of an isolated world quietly spinning behind an earnest gaze without the slightest emotion is classic. The reserve and politeness Japanese are characterized by has an interesting affect on the goofy western gesture fest that substitutes for language. Being greeted with polite silence is krypton for westerners.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

It's hard to make hotel reservations in Tokyo sometimes

Really?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Someone above said "Anticipation"

That is probably the biggest problem with the Japanese and speking other languages. They cannot anticipate and get way off the mark. Does create some funny moments though.

Two friends of mine wanted to sample some Yaki Tori and had no language down at all.

There were ten different kinds on the menu and they each wanted one of each and cold beer. Well, they got the cold beer, and they also got ten sticks for each of the items on the yakitori menu...each! 200 sticks of meat.

Ouch. Anticipation.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Ouch. Anticipation. Ha. So much for omotenashi! The much vaunted omotenashi often seems to be an excuse for cutting the channels of communication, and simply providing service that the service provider wants to provide rather than getting embroiled in serving individual needs. For example every time I go to the same checkouts in the same supermarkets I am asked by the same staff whether I have a discount card, and I am offered a bag and a receipt (under my change) both of which I refuse, and even refusing these things with my checkout mantra, (no card, no bag, no receipt) I am then required, by the same staff, to reconfirm my refusal of these things since they are completely on autopilot and are not anticipating anything other than subservience to their service ritual on the part of their customers. Receipts can be a pain for Japanese people too http://youtu.be/AFtvJKMDxvY?t=1m50s http://tasuichi.ocnk.net/product/102 and omotenashi can even be a disservice to foreigners https://www.flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/15996023245/ This is the featured company's research web page http://www.yamatogokoro.jp/research/

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Funny story, Speed. Back in the '80s, when I was fresh off the boat, I had a break between job interviews in Osaka and chose to spend the time in a kisaten. Without a word of Japanese to my name (though I was fluent in Chinese), I figured, hey, "coffee" is sort of an international term ("kafei" in Chinese), so I would do well just to put two syllables together with a close-enough sound and they would figure it out.

The waitress approached my table, hands trembling enough to spill water from the glass she was carrying, and this was enough to trigger my feeling of what I would later understand is "yabai." There, in a coffee shop, with only two syllables required to make my request known, it took the poor woman five minutes to understand that, YES, I am in a COFFEE shop, and would therefore like a cup of COFFEE! (Random pronunciation eventually produced the word "kohi.")

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Good stuff. Japan should do what it can to capture foreign income.

But first, they have to clarify who the target customer is

Totally! I went to a pitch meeting once with my bucho. We were supposed to come up with ideas for tourist materials. I asked what the target market was. He said "Everybody". In marketing, a target market of "everybody" means "nobody". Just like "as soon as possible" means "after everything with an actual deadline".

The big problem is that tourist materials are translated from Japanese, and foreigners don't give a toss about the four seasons, for instance. They're coming in one season, so changes in the seasons is not a draw. It the typical problem of Japanese bureaucrats having trouble looking at Japan from a non-Japanese perspective.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

TravelingSalesJAN. 12, 2015 - 02:23PM JST In most of the restaurants you can't taste the food because of the clouds of smoke and foul smell. Might be acceptable to mainland Chinese or Russian tourists, but Westerners are not going to appreciate it.

Goodness sakes. Where are all these mythical, smoky restaurants? Do you dine, nowhere but six stool nomiya? Izakaya in down-at-the-heel neighborhoods? Japanese smoke more than adults from NA and Western Europe, but half as much as they did just twenty years ago.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Tim: The asking of the point card has to be done. If they do not ask, and you have one, the person who does not ask is in big trouble.

Now for the receipt thing: I find it so annoying to have the receipt put under my change. ... But, that is not the worst part. Before they put the receipt on your hand and the change on top, they want to hand you the bag. So, now you need four hands. One to remove the receipt without dropping the change, another to put the change away, another to put your wallet in your bag....crazy.

My way:

Put up a sign that says, if you have a point card, please take it out. Ring up the sales. Take the money and hand you your change. Put goods in bags or basket. Hand you the receipt.
1 ( +1 / -0 )

One problem is that the Japanese government doesn’t use much foreign expertise to promote tourism. Most of the tourism staff are Japanese who are not good at communicating on a global level. We have to value the foreign perspective rather than doing promotions by ourselves, just using big Japanese advertising agencies.

This.

Many times, I wonder if there are any foreigners or people with outside experience working in JNTO or the tourism industry at large at all. Japan has a boatload to offer foreign tourists, but many times I feel the locals just don't have any clue as to what those things might be. Me, for example, I like to travel alone, without tour guides or fixed schedules. I think many other people would enjoy this as well. I don't care about the official 'omotenashi' (dog, how I hate that word!) sticker being plastered on some shop window, telling me how they're officially sanctioned and promoted by clueless official. I can feel if I receive hospitality.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

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