The Japanese government accepted the national budget draft for FY2019 starting April 1 2019. A budget for Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) is up 2.2 times to 71,106 million JPY, out of which a general account budget reaches 66,596 million JPY (2.4 times more than FY2018 budget) except 4,510 million yen in the Tohoku reconstruction framework.
The general account budget contains expected 48,500 million JPY from the departure tax, which will be broken down into 23,350 million JPY for JTA, 7,060 million yen for Ministry of Justice, 3,010 million JPY for Ministry of Finance, 10,000 million JPY for Agency for Cultural Affairs and 5,080 million JPY for Ministry of Environment.
Ministry of Justice will use the budget for a smoother immigration system including a face recognition system for international visitors. Ministry of Finance will use it for improvement of custom procedures. Agency for Cultural Affairs is promoting development of local unique cultures and natures as tourism resources to improve satisfaction in local experiences. Ministry of Environment is improving environments to receive international visitors in National Parks.
The budget of 66,596 million JPY for JTA is used for three major policies of ‘stress-free travel’ at 27,865 million JPY (2.37 times more), ‘Development of the tourism industry and information delivery of Japanese tourism resources’ at 14,876 million JPY (1.38 times more) and ‘Development of tourism resources using local unique cultures and natures to improve satisfaction in local experiences’ at 22,441 million JPY (6.41 times more).
For stress-free travel, in addition to the administrative actions for a smother immigration system and improvement of custom procedures mentioned above, JTA will support lodgings and transportation services in local regions to receive more international visitors at 5,474 million JPY, innovations of public transportations at 5,500 million JPY and FAST TRAVEL from check-in to boarding at 3,500 million JPY.
For Development of the tourism industry and information delivery of Japanese tourism resources, JTA will use a budget of 9,049 million JPY (from the departure tax) to enforce strategic promotion activities using ICT in 20 target markets. Also, JTA will perform market researches and proactive promotions in potential markets, such as Middle East or Latin America. Using a budget of 5,149 million JPY from the departure tax, JTA is improving promotional campaigns by taking advantage of big data or SNS analyses to personalize contents.
For Development of tourism resources using local unique cultures and natures to improve satisfaction in local experiences, a budget of 10,000 million JPY will be used to develop National Treasures and national important cultural properties nationwide as tourism contents to encourage more international visitors to visit local regions. Also, a budget of 5,008 million JPY will be used for National Park development programs to receive international visitors including creation of wildlife tourism contents and offering of multi-language guidance.
