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| PATA Japan Chapter Newsletter Vol. 11 - January ~ February 2005 | |
| Hot News coming straight to you from the PATA Japan Chapter Secretariat |
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Happy New Year to all of our members from
the PATA Japan Chapter! The first PATA Japan Chapter event of the New Year was held on Thursday, January 13th at chapter member the Palace Hotel in Tokyo. The event began with a presentation by Mr. Makoto Washizu, Deputy Vice Minister for Tourism Policy, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, followed by a presentation by Mr. Akira Moriyama, Secretary General of Visit Japan Campaign Secretariat, and ended with a casual reception. Mr. Washizu’s presentation about the strengthening of Japanese tourism proved to be very interesting and informative, and was well received by the approximately 70 chapter members who participated in the event. Mr. Moriyama’s presentation, entitled “The Visit Japan Campaign is Now!”, also proved to be of great interest, making use of visuals including promotional advertisements and excerpts from TV shows, as well as market-based case studies. The target area of the Visit Japan Campaign promotions will be extended to cover the countries of Australia, Canada, Thailand and Singapore in 2005. After these presentations, the PATA Japan Chapter took a few moments to discuss the upcoming 2005 PATA Annual Conference, to be held in Macau in April, which was followed by the reception. A toast was made by Mr. Jimmy Moritani, Chairman of Travel Journal and Vice Chairman of the PATA Japan Chapter, after which the chapter members took the opportunity to catch up with one another and network in a relaxed environment. A number of chapter members mentioned that they would like to have the opportunity to attend this kind of event on a more regular basis, so we will certainly keep this in mind. If any chapter members would like to receive copies of Mr. Washizu or Mr. Moriyama’s presentation materials, please contact the PATA Japan Chapter Secretariat (tel: 03-5367-3320, email: ). PATA Annual Conference 2005 in Macau This year’s PATA Annual Conference (PAC) will be held in Macau, and the PATA Japan Chapter is gearing up for a number of activities to increase the awareness of our chapter through the event. Planned activities are as follows: Press Conference Similar to the past two years’ events in Jeju and Bali, the PATA Japan Chapter will hold a press conference to inform the international media about the Visit Japan Campaign activities, aims to increase the number of foreign visitors to Japan, and other related subjects. Last year’s press conference was attended by many foreign journalists, and the PATA Japan Chapter took the opportunity to introduce such topics as efforts being made towards tourism promotion in Japan and Prime Minister Koizumi’s “Welcome to Japan” promotional video. Mr. Jimmy Moritani, Chairman of the Travel Journal Group and Vice-Chairman of the PATA Japan Chapter, and Mr. Kazuaki Saiga of Japan Airlines and PATA Japan Chapter Board Member, also spoke about their respective fields during the press conference, and took time to answer questions addressed to them by the audience. Representatives of the 2005 Aichi Expo were also in attendance, and showed their promotional video for the event to participating journalists. Although last year’s press conference was held in the early morning of the last day of the PAC, a total of around 30 journalists attended the event, and as a result we feel that it was a very valuable medium to increase awareness of the VJC campaign and Japanese tourism in general. As such, we plan to conduct a similar press conference during the 2005 PAC in Macau. PATA Japan Chapter’s Donation to the Silent Auction The Silent Auction raises money for the PATA Foundation, an independent not-for-profit organisation established and operated exclusively for charitable purposes in order to foster the development of educational and training programs within Pacific Asia countries, encourage heritage conservation, and support research for the development of tourism. As those of you who were in attendance may remember, the PATA Japan Chapter donated an AIBO (Sony robot dog) to the silent auction at the Jeju PAC. Since this was an usual and eye-catching donation, the AIBO attracted a great deal of attention, with many people coming up to the Silent Auction table to interact with the robot. This provided a great deal of exposure for the PATA Japan Chapter, and representatives of the Chapter were able to distribute membership directories and answer a range of questions about the chapter, as well as general questions about Japan as a destination. In order to support this worthy cause and to make the most of the PR value of this event, the PATA Japan Chapter will once again make a donation to the Silent Auction at this year’s PAC. Donations to the Silent Auction must have a minimum value of US$300, and in the past have included such items as hotel vouchers, air tickets, local crafts, works of art and other unique items. The donated items will be kept on display throughout the five days of the conference, together with the name and details of the donor. Since there is high promotional value associated with Silent Auction, in addition to a donation from the PATA Japan Chapter, if any chapter member would like to make a personal donation, please contact the PATA Japan Chapter Secretariat. PATA Japan Chapter Booth Marketing Display At last year’s Jeju PAC, the PATA Japan Chapter hosted our own Japan marketing display booth which was decorated with Yokoso Japan posters, with chapter members’ pamphlets, Japan tourism brochures, details of the 2005 Aichi Expo, and PATA Japan Chapter member directories and website details being available for visitors to take away with them. Although each of these booth spaces has a cost of US$800, we were lucky enough to be able to have the space for free thanks to JAL’s cooperation and status as being a sponsor of the 2004 PAC. Once again this year the PATA Japan Chapter intends to make the most of this opportunity to host the “Japan Chapter Booth” and introduce the attractions of Japan, and of our individual chapter members, at this year’s event.
The PATA Japan Chapter has donated US$1,000 to the PATA Tsunami Fund, the donation being officially approved at the Board of Directors Meeting held on January 13th, 2005. Furthermore, the Travel Journal Group (Chairman: Mr. Jimmy Moritani) has established the “TJ Group Tsunami Recovery Fund” to help the tourism industry in the tsunami-affected countries, with an initial company donation of 500,000 yen. Unlike other recovery fund efforts, donations will be used exclusively for human resource development and training to help directly to rebuild the skills and livelihoods of tourism employees in the regions affected by the tsunami. These regions will include Sri Lanka, Sumatra, southern Thailand, southeast India, the Maldives, northwest Malaysia, Myanmar and Bangladesh. To make a donation to the “TJ Group Tsunami Recovery Fund”, please make a money transfer payable to: Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank, Higashi Nakano Branch Ordinary Account no. 1460143, TJ Sumatra Earthquake/Tsunami Fund For donations made from outside Japan, donors can access the PATA website to download the donation form (www.pata.org/tsunami). Donations to the TJ Group Tsunami Recovery Fund will be accepted until the end of March 2005, at which time they will be given to PATA for accounting and for the amount to be announced at the PATA Annual Conference to be held in Macau in April. The PATA Japan Chapter is also involved in a joint project with the PATA Maldives Chapter, the PATA Sri Lanka Chapter and SriLankan Airlines to conduct a media familiarization trip in March of this year to the affected countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
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