Inside Japan - Japan's Tourism Agency plans to lure more foreign tourists

JAL to discontinue popular calendar due to economic slump

The Japan Tourism Agency said Wednesday it will promote Japan’s spa resorts in South Korea, especially targeting single South Korean women in their 30s.

NARITA, Japan, Jan. 31 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Japan Airlines plans to discontinue its 20-year-long production of popular calendars featuring photographs of cabin attendants, company sources said Saturday. // FULL ARTICLE

JAL, ANA eye sizable reduction of int'l, domestic flights

For Chinese and Taiwanese tourists who tend to go on shopping sprees in Japan, the agency will advertise seasonal bargain sales.
The agency has worked out the plan through fiscal 2010 as the number of foreign tourists to Japan is decreasing in the face of the global recession and the yen’s steep appreciation. In December, the number of tourists from abroad plunged 24% from a year earlier, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
As tourists from India, Russia and Malaysia are expected to increase, the agency will advertise more in these countries. (Source: Kyodo) // FULL ARTICLE

Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways will significantly scale down their international and domestic flights in the year that begins in April, due to a sharp fall in demand amid the global economic crisis, officials at the two airlines said.
(Kyodo) // FULL ARTICLE

Foreign tourists down 24.1% in Dec

JAPANiCAN to discount Sunrise Tours

Tram tours backstreets of Setagaya

Park Hotel Group opens office in Tokyo

ANA doubles in-flight entertainment

Ski operators in Niigata faring well in

trying to attract foreigners

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3-D system at Tokyo museum takes audiences on ride through galaxy

50th Asahikawa Winter Festival & International Ice Sculpture Competition.

One of the most famous festivals in winter in Japan, the Asahikawa Winter Festival is certainly worth experiencing if you happen to be in Asahikawa at the start of February. Visitors will be able to see fireworks, laser shows, ice sculptures, and a massive snow stage featuring music and dance acts.
(Asahikawa Tourism) // FULL ARTICLE

Japan's first system for projecting three-dimensional images of stars and planets has debuted at a museum in the Odaiba district of Tokyo, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei's use of the telescope to look into space. // FULL ARTICLE