Tourism Agency, upgraded transport safety panel to start in October
The Diet passed bills on Friday for the establishment of the Tourism Agency and an upgraded transport safety board, both of which are scheduled to be inaugurated in October. The Tourism Agency is expected to play a role in achieving the government's targets such as increasing the number of foreign visitors to Japan to 10 million per year by 2010 as well as boosting spending on domestic holidays to 30 billion yen.
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Japan accommodates 304 mil. in 2007, foreigners accounting for 7.2%
Hotels and other lodgings across Japan accommodated a total of 304.45 million people in 2007, of whom 7.2 percent or 21.91 million people were travelers from overseas, a Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry survey showed Wednesday. Of the foreign tourists who used accommodation last year, South Koreans constituted the largest group at 4.24 million, followed by Taiwan's 3.81 million and 2.86 million from the United States. The total figure of the top three accounted for about half of all foreign tourists.
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Japan aims to draw 9.15 mil. foreign tourists in 2008
The transport ministry set a new goal Monday for seeing 9.15 million foreign tourists visit Japan this year, up 9.6 percent from the actual number of foreign tourists in 2007, ministry officials said. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will begin advertising campaigns targeting various age groups and sexes in 12 countries and territories including South Korea and Taiwan.
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China tries to allay safety fears after tourists taken hostage
China's government said Thursday the country is safe to visit despite an incident the previous day in which a busload of Australians was briefly taken hostage in the historic northwestern city of Xi'an. A man armed with explosives was shot dead by police Wednesday after holding one of the 10 Australians, all of them travel agents, and a Chinese translator captive for several hours.
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