In 2010, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) will undertake their biggest campaign yet. In a bid to boost inbound visitor numbers and achieve the Japanese government’s Visit Japan Campaign target of attracting ten million international visitors per year to Japan by the end of 2010, JNTO has launched a multi-faceted worldwide strategic marketing campaign for 2009-2010. 

The Yokoso! Japan “Visit Japan Year 2010” campaign started in November with the launch of a global website, www.vjy2010.jp, aimed primarily at the Visit Japan Campaign’s 12 key target markets, and subsequently will be available in English, French, German, Chinese, Korean and Thai.

The Visit Japan Year 2010 campaign will be driven through the website, with two key focus periods – winter and autumn. The website will launch with a “winter in Japan” theme, aiming to increase visitors to Japan from 1 January through 31 March 2010. The autumn push will aim to increase visitors to Japan from 1 September through 30 November 2010. The website will promote Japan’s key charms of culture, food and shopping and highlight special events taking place during the campaign periods. Through the website, visitors will be able to find special “Visit Japan Year 2010” discounts and special offers for accommodation, transport, attractions and shopping. For details of the special winter offers please visit www.vjy2010.jp/cp/.

JNTO’s London office will launch the Visit Japan Year 2010 campaign in the UK in January with a major marketing campaign in collaboration with Virgin Holidays. In its first major marketing campaign with a British tour operator, JNTO London will sponsor a major print and online advertising campaign for a competition to win a Virgin Holidays trip for two to Japan. Fantastic runner-up prizes will include Nintendo Wii game consoles - complete with critically acclaimed title ‘Muramasa: The Demon Blade’, Matsuri restaurant vouchers, bottles of Japanese sake and luxury Clear Springs organic Japanese food hampers.

Following on from this, JNTO London will run a London Underground advertising campaign in February with Finnair. JNTO has been working closely with Finnair for two years to promote the airline’s convenient and competitively priced fares to Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya via Helsinki. JNTO has found that in the recession consumers are finding indirect routes to Japan increasingly appealing as they generally save over £100 on a return flight to Japan through convenient hubs like Helsinki.

As part of the Visit Japan Year 2010 campaign, JNTO will be promoting selected key regions of Japan including Hida-Takayama, Kanazawa, Nagano, Okinawa, Niigata and the Seto Inland Sea.

“Despite the recession, 2009 has been a good year for tourism to Japan from the UK. This year we have seen major tour operators such as Funway Holidays, Thomson and Hayes & Jarvis start tours to Japan, taking the total number of UK tour operators selling Japan to 135! With the launch of Visit Japan Year 2010, we believe the year ahead will be even better. As part of the new campaign we will be undertaking our first ever major campaigns with British tour operators and a major British airline. I believe the focus regions of our 2010 campaign are perfectly suited to the cultured British traveller who wants to experience the ‘real Japan’ beyond the big cities of Tokyo and Osaka,” said JNTO London Executive Director, Mr. Koichiro Yoshida.

Tourism has been a very high priority for the Japanese Government since the Visit Japan

Campaign was launched in 2003 with the goal of reaching 10 million annual inbound visitors by 2010. The Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) and Japan National Tourism Organization hope that "Visit Japan Year (VJY) 2010" will enable the Visit Japan Campaign to reach its goal of having 10 million visitors in the coming year.