July 8, 2010, 1:42 pm
A Kyodo article published today tells us:
A private advisory panel for Japan Tourism Agency chief Hiroshi Mizohata held its first conference on Friday with six experts on various subjects, including sports and business, discussing ways to promote tourism in the country…panel member Saburo Kawabuchi, honorary president of the Japan Football Association, said he hopes to propose ideas for promotion of tourism through exchange programs for soccer…Other experts include Softbank Corp President Masayoshi Son, Mori Building Co President Minoru Mori, Fuji Television Network Chairman Hisashi Hieda and Benesse Holdings Chairman Fukutake Soichiro…The number of foreign tourists to Japan was 6.79 million in 2009, down 18.7% from a year earlier. The government is hoping to attract 10 million visitors to Japan in 2010.
A panel meant to discuss ideas on how to bring more foreign tourists to Japan included Kawabuchi, Son and Mori? What in the world could these people possibly know about why foreign tourists would want to visit Japan? And t
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January 26, 2010, 1:29 am
Kenyans will pay a high price for post-election violence early in 2008, with the country’s tourism industry expected not to have fully recovered by 2012 as projected.
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The effects of the violence, and the global financial crisis will cost the industry — the country’s third foreign exchange earner after tea and horticulture — its mid-term targets under Vision 2030.
“We may be close but we will not reach the targets,” said Stanbic Investments (EA) Ltd chief investment officer, Anthony Mwithiga, at a press briefing at Nairobi.
Under the Vision 2030 Mid-Term Plan (2007-2012), the industry is expected to increase international visitors from 1.8 million in 2007, which was its best year ever, to 3 million in 2012.
Over the same period, it is expected to increase average spend from Sh40,000 to Sh70,000, triple tourism earning from Sh65.4 billion to Sh200 billion in 2012.
The announcement comes at a time when industry players are optimistic about its performance this year, following improvements in 2009.
“This year is going to be challenging but not like 2009. We expect a s
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