抄録
1)The Welcome Plan 21
The Welcome Plan 21 was the brain child of the JTPC, which set a target to increase inbound tourists from 3.5 million in 1995 to 7 million by 2005.
In order to achieve this target the following measures were proposed;
・Establish new worldwide markets and public relations strategies for inbound tourists.
・Lower travel costs in Japan by adopting a Welcome Card to provide discounts on rail passes, accommodation etc.
・Upgrade access to all relevant facilities and services for overseas visitors.
・Develop new tourism resources in country towns and a wider co-operative network for new tourism concepts such as ecology tours, techno-industrial tours, linking several prefectures or cities, towns and villages together.
2)Problems of the Welcome Plan 21
While the Welcome Plan 21 contains many broad measures for attracting tourists to Japan, many issues remain to be addressed regarding realisation.
In Japan, the Ministry of Transport is responsible for tourism. Expenditure on tourism activities has been minimal. The budget for 1996 was only 3.4 billion yen which is only around 35% of Australia’s tourism budget.
This is even more surprising when considered as a per capita cost. Australia has a population of only 17 million-about 1/8th the size of Japan’s population. Therefore there is a strong opinion that the Japanese Government must reform its present administration structure, and that it should fall within the Prime minister’s office. The annual budget should be increased to a level at least on a par with the top 20 countries in the world.
