Japan's Hotels Taking Steps To Attract More Foreign Visitors

Above, the Shimano River in Niigata.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To meet its long-term tourism goals of 10 million foreign visitors annually and the 2020 Olympics Summer Games, Japan's hotels are re-thinking their strategies in making their facilities more inviting to foreign tourists.

According to the Tokyo Times:

Japanese hotels have started to pay more attention to foreign tourists, from creating multilingual websites to offering larger beds. They are preparing step by step for the 2020 Olympics, when, for several weeks, Tokyo will become one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world.

The goal for 10 million visitors was 60% met in July, according to the article and are taking even further steps.

 “About 10 years ago, there was a sense among hotels that they did not need to depend on foreign guests, but now they have learned that foreign visitors are also reliable on weekdays when the number of Japanese guests might be low,” Osamu Urasawa, who runs O.H. Co., a company offering website design and translation services mainly to hotels, said.

To read the full article, go here.

Also, the Wall Street Journal website's "Japan Realtime" has posted their version of the article here.