ITB Berlin News 2019 - Day 2 Edition

42
SPECIAL FEATURE
GASTRONOMY EVENTS THAT DRIVE & WINE TRAVEL TOURISM & TOURISM
Sport and culture
play a key role in
world tourism
ADVERTORIAL
Akito
Tadokoro
Director of Marketing
and Promotion,
Tokyo Convention
and Visitors Bureau (TCVB)
TOKYO TO
PROSPER FROM
TWO SPORTING
MEGA EVENTS
Beach volleyball at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London
Do mega-events have a positive effect on tourism? It depends
on the event, but they generally have a positive effect in the
long term in terms of destination exposure.
Sport is probably the activity that
has the most positive effect on
tourism.
London, for example, saw growth
of 20% in the total number of
arrivals in the year following the
summer Olympics. By comparison,
the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016
attracted 541,000 tourists over July
and August 2016, 157,000 more
visitors than during summer 2015.
And surveys suggested that 95% of
visitors were considering further
visits to Brazil.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South
Africa brought over 310,000
visitors with the primary purpose
of watching the games. Some 5%
of all travellers indicated their
intention to visit other African
nations. In 2018, the FIFA World
Cup in Russia also had a positive
effect. According to Russian
officials some 1.5 million tourists
travelled to the event with a
number of cities enjoying solid
growth – for example Sochi, which
welcomed 90% more tourists
in summer of 2018 than on the
previous year.
In Europe, cultural festivals and
events are becoming true hits.
ITB BERLIN NEWS • Thursday 7 th March 2019
The German Tourism Association
estimates that 85 million people
visited more than 1,500 German
Christmas markets in 2017 and
between 20% and 25% of all those
visitors travelled from abroad.
CULTURAL
FESTIVALS AND
EVENTS ARE
BECOMING TRUE
HITS.
Cultural events are a key attraction
for tourists. A study conducted
in 2016 for Salzburg said that
the city’s famed festival was
motivation for some 95% of visits
there. The Lyon Festival of Light
has grown over the years from a
regional to an international event.
Around one hundred thousand
visitors visit the French city in
December for the four days of the
festival, coming as far as Japan or
the US to discover Lyon
Rugby World Cup 2019 and the Tokyo
2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games set
to give major boost to tourism
Two upcoming major sporting events – the Rugby World
Cup 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic
Games – will thrust Tokyo into the spotlight. We asked
Akito Tadokoro, Director of Marketing and Promotion of
the Tokyo Convention and Visitors Bureau (TCVB) how
planning for these two events is coming along.
Tickets for the Rugby World
Cup 2019 are being sold well,
and 20% to 30% are expected
to be sold overseas. If this
percentage does not change,
we will be welcoming more
than 400,000 overseas visitors
during the games nationwide,
and that figure is more than
we expected. The prices of
the tickets for the Tokyo 2020
Olympic and Paralympic Games
have recently been decided and
the new National Stadium will
be completed this autumn – the
public’s expectations are rising.
How important are these events
for the image and profile of
Tokyo?
Tokyo is one of the hottest
“bucket list” destinations in the
world, but still, the majority of
overseas visitors to the city are
from East and Southeast Asia.
These sporting events will give
exposure to the city especially
in North America, Europe and
Oceania, and it is an opportunity
for us to gain more visitors from
those regions.
TOKYO IS
ONE OF THE
HOTTEST
“BUCKET LIST”
DESTINATIONS
IN THE WORLD
What is being done in terms of
packages and promotions?
We want more people to think
of Tokyo as a leisure travel
destination, so recently we
have strengthened our B2C
promotions. For example, we are
now showing our promotional
video “Unstoppable Journey” on
TV stations including TV CM, on
CNNI and Eurosport.
We are also focusing on the
luxury travel market and joined
Virtuoso and Traveller Made as
a preferred destination last year.
We are the first city in Japan to
join those consortiums
Hall 26a / Stand 102
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