Japan National Tourism Organization Partner Content

Japan’s Setouchi Region was once a relatively unknown corner of the country, left off the itineraries of most travelers. But that’s changing quickly, thanks to high profile attractions like Naoshima Island. How will Setouchi’s tourism stakeholders find the right strategy to help it sustain and grow this tourism success story?

Destinations of all shapes and sizes across Japan want fresh ideas to help attract overseas visitors and transform their economies. The strategy used by the city of Takayama, which has seen a surge of new tourism in the past decade, offers one potential roadmap.

Japan has grand ambitions to bring more than 40 million visitors to the country by 2020, and 60 million by 2030. But the country isn’t just dreaming big, it’s acting big too. Thanks to a concerted country-wide push by tourism officials and local business leaders to transform the Japanese tourism economy, the country seems on track to achieve this vision.