Japan local govts bank on expo success to attract tourists

During the 184-day Osaka Expo, which closed on Monday, not only countries from around the world but also Japanese prefectural governments engaged in various promotional activities to attract tourists and publicise local traditional cultures through pavilions and events.

Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, set up a permanent booth within the Kansai Pavilion as a member of the Union of Kansai Governments, comprising local governments in the greater Kansai region, including host Osaka.

Inside the pavilion, Tottori created an area paved with sand from the Tottori Sand Dunes to allow visitors to experience the dunes, a major Tottori tourist site.

Tottori's exchanges with the Jordan pavilion, which shared a similar "sand" theme where visitors could step on desert sand, also attracted attention.

The exhibit was "very successful as a means to publicise Tottori," said a senior official of the Tottori prefectural government.

Tottori hopes to make the most of the popularity of the Osaka Expo to attract tourists to the prefecture.

The prefecture plans to move part of the sand from the Jordan pavilion, with the consent of the Jordanian side, to a facility in the city of Sakaiminato to enable visitors to experience the Jordanian sand in bare feet.

"We hope to continue exchanges with Jordan," the official stressed.

Tokushima Prefecture, which also held a booth in the Kansai pavilion, ran a campaign in which it gave out one-way coupons that allowed users to go to Tokushima for just 500 yen until the end of August.

Some 10,000 people used the discount coupon to visit the prefecture in the Shikoku western region, according to Tokushima government officials.

Tokushima is now considering a second campaign, such as one involving a tour around the prefecture.

"We want to increase the number of repeat visitors by implementing measures while the tourism momentum is high," said a Tokushima prefectural government official in charge of promoting the Osaka Expo.

In May, traditional Ainu dances from the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido were performed at the Osaka Expo by more than 200 people from and outside the prefecture.

The event was a good opportunity to publicise Ainu culture both in Japan and abroad, an official of the Hokkaido government said.

Last month, promotional exhibits for the International Horticultural Expo 2027, which will take place in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, from March to September 2027, were on display at the Osaka Expo.

Feeling the lively atmosphere of the Osaka Expo, an official in charge of the 2027 Expo said, "We have to make sure our Expo will be welcomed by many people, too."

 [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]