The tourism industry has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced travel restriction and voluntary stay-home policies. As the number of overseas tourists is unlikely to recover anytime soon, the industry is facing a major turning point.
The Yomiuri Shimbun interviews David Atkinson, President, Konishi Decorative Arts and Crafts Co. on potentially effective tourism strategies to consider.
As Japan's population shrinks, domestic tourism demand is undergoing a structural decline. It is short-sighted to argue that foreign visitors are not needed because of high domestic demand.
Japan's tourism industry used to have low productivity and low satisfaction levels. There were structural problems in that the crush of customers during busy periods such as weekends, long holiday periods, the Bon and the New Year's holidays prompted the industry to be satisfied with the situation and not make business efforts. Meanwhile, occupancy rates are low at other times.
Due to the extreme waves in demand from domestic tourists, it is impossible to build an industry on domestic demand alone. Hence, foreign visitors are essential to the tourism industry and will trigger drastic reform.
Unlike Japanese who stay only for short periods, many foreign visitors to Japan stay for several consecutive nights, which levels out occupancy rates. Furthermore, many of them are young and tend to go to places where elderly Japanese do not.
We can think of the present moment as a break to rethink the problems of Japan's tourism industry. The most important points are improving systems for accepting tourists and capital investments -- for instance, improving environments and touristic facilities around national parks, attracting world-class hotels and renovating existing ones.
Visitors to Japan spend a lot of time and money coming here, so their expectations are high. When looking to increase satisfaction and unit prices, the facilities are more important than hospitality and cleanliness. Even if there is great customer service, guests will not come, or return, if the rooms available are small and old.
Tourism demand is sure to come again.
If we are to look at past calamitous plights, the plague that devastated Europe in the 14th century had cut the population in half, still, history shows that tourism developed even after that.
-- David Atkinson
Born in Britain, Atkinson, 55, graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Japan studies. After a career that included a stint as a partner at Goldman Sachs Japan in Tokyo, he joined Konishi Decorative Arts and Crafts Co. in 2009. He became company president in 2011.
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