Abstract
As of January 2012, When I was assigned as a professor of Center for East Asia Research (CEAR) AIU, it seemed that there were very limited number of people who were conscious enough of the necessity of promotion of inbound tourism from South East Asian nations to Akita prefecture and Tohoku region. This essay is to record and give an outline of the result of the research on the promotion of inbound tourism from South East Asian nations, especially from Thailand, to our region, conducted under the mission of CEAR as "Think Tank with Action" and also refers to some problems to be solved in the future which were apparently identified during the research process. First of all, I will deal with a policy proposal entitled "Promotion of inbound/outbound tourism with ASEAN countries" which was informally submitted to the Prefectural Government of Akita on the basis of the result of the interviews in Thailand and Singapore, as potential tourism markets in South East Asia, learning from the advanced experiences of Sendai city. Second, I will introduce "Business Meeting Mission to Thailand" which was also aiming the promotion of the inbound tourism from Thailand and "Akita Survey Mission" organized by Association of Thai Travel Agents. Third, I will refer to "Top Sales" conducted by the Governor of Akita Prefecture and "Akita Seminar" in Thailand organized by Akita Prefectural Government which were followed by a "Visiting around Tohoku Tour" organized by Association of Thai Travel Agents using a charter flight operated by Thai International Airways. Finally, I will propose some ideas including possible tour plans to be designed that emphasize the concept of "corridors", envisioning the possibility of the integrated/inter-prefectural activities to be jointly operated by the multiple prefectures/regions.
