International Tourism System (DOCS)

Running head: INTERNATIONAL TOURISM SYSTEM
INTERNATIONAL TOURISM SYSTEM
Name of the Student
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Analysis of tourist visitation to Tokyo............................................................................................2
Elements that makes Tokyo attractive to tourists............................................................................5
Analysis of the issues relating to tourism and destination development at Tokyo..........................6
Impacts of tourism activity on the host community at Tokyo.........................................................8
Four policy implications to achieve sustainable tourism outcomes for Tokyo.............................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
This specific case study provides an overview on the international tourism system of
Tokyo (Japan). Tokyo is Japan’s capital city and has been one of the most famous tourism
locations in Japan. Tokyo is known as a metropolitan prefecture that combines element of both
city as well as a prefecture. The culture of Tokyo highlights that it has been famous because of
several theatres, festivals, museums. This location has been considered as a modern city owing to
its attractive infrastructure. This study elucidates about the elements that make this destination
attractive to tourists. The main issue relating to Tokyo as a tourism destination is also identified
and analyzed in this study. Furthermore, both positive as well as negative effects of tourism
activity on the host community are also discussed in this case study.
Analysis of tourist visitation to Tokyo
It has been evident from recent studies that tourist visitation to Tokyo has increased by
huge number for the past few years. Several tourist activities in this location help in attracting
large number of international tourists towards this location. (The Japan Times 2018) This
destination has been offering huge variety of experiences to the tourists across the globe that
ranges from urban life to nature experiences. This city has a mix of traditional as well as
ultramodern tourist attractions that ranges from neon – lit skyscrapers to the historic temples.
This contributes to reputation of the city as one of the famous tourist destinations, which in turn
increases tourist visitation of this place. In addition to this, the city’s urban landscape, natural
beauty, unique culture and transportation infrastructure are significant in attracting ourissts to
this popular scale. (The Japan Times 2018). The five main attractions in this destination for
which the tourists visit this place are its- Temple and Shrines, Gardens and parks, Zoological

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Gardens, different events, festivals and museums. According to the recent statistics of JNTO
(Japan National Tourism Organization), the total number of international tourist growth rate had
reached its highest peak in the year 2012 by near about 36% in which domestic tourists increased
by about 10%. Based on the data of Euromonitor International, this city has been attracting near
around 51% of international tourists in the recent years, which is quite low as compared to
previous years. It has been stated by Euromonitor that this rising trend of foreign tourists to this
city is mainly contributed through a rise in low- cost flights and relaxations of visa.
Figure 1: Domestic tourist arrivals
Source: (The Japan Times 2018)

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Figure 2: Foreign tourist arrivals in Tokyo
Source: (The Japan Times 2018)
The metropolitan government of this city has recently published information that reflects
that most visited spots are mainly situated in central Tokyo area. The tourists mainly arrive in
this city to visit various attractions such as -museums, art galleries and for business purposes.
According to recent statistics revealed by the Metropolitan Government of this nation indicates
that in the year 2017, near about 88% of the tourists arrived in this city mainly for the purpose of
sightseeing. Besides this, the total number of tourists visiting this city for the purpose of business
has been higher than that of other nations such as Germany, Vietnam and so on. It has been
evident from the above study that, the international tourist visitation in this location has been
higher than that of the domestic tourist visitation. Overall, it can be said that tourist visitation in
this location increased over the last few years.

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Elements that makes Tokyo attractive to tourists
There are several elements that make this destination attractive to tourists, which mainly
involve their tourism system. The tourism administration of this city is the comprehensive
administration, which supports the whole tourism industry. The local government of this nation
adopts several policies in the tourism industry in order to improve their tourism system. These
policies include- promotion of this city’s images through various advertising mediums and paper
mediums as well as holding domestic events such as fairs, festivals and projections. They also
support their tourism industry in promotion of different activities such as attraction of travel
agencies, training camps, conventions. Furthermore, they also make public private cooperation in
order to establish institutions as well as adopt tourism policies in a flexible way. In addition to
this, the local governments also invest huge amount of money for supporting particular
businesses relating to the tourism systems. This in turn motivates the people involved in the
business and thus improves the whole tourism administration of this city.
Recent evidences reflect that this city has increased the hotel accommodation supply over
the last few years. During the past two years, new hotels have been opened across the central
region of this city. Moreover, this expansion has been partly contributed by huge expansion of
hotel development including resorts, APA hotels. Based on the recent statistics, it has been seen
that the hotel occupancy rate increased at a higher rate during the last two years. However, such
development in the tourism system of this destination attracts large number of domestic as well
as international tourists.

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Analysis of the issues relating to tourism and destination development at Tokyo
This destination has been facing several issues relating to tourism even though it
experiences huge growth over the last few years. One of the major issues that this destination has
been experiencing is the lack of multiculturalism. As this location has less number of foreign
residents, it features the slowest growth in attaining multiculturalism in comparison with other
global cities (Charlesworth 2017). As a result, this affects the tourism sector since this city’s
service providers and retailers have been struggling to serve international tourists in English as
well as other foreign languages. Therefore, recruitment of appropriate employees who are more
conversant in foreign language remains an issue for tourism service providers in Tokyo.
Another major issue is Tokyo has been still facing the lack of accommodations as total
number of tourists continues to rise (Dennis, McCornac and Rong Zhang 2018). Although this
destination has developed their tourism system and increased the hotel accommodation supply,
this becomes a huge challenge over the past few years. Recent studies reflect that huge number
of tourists has begun to degrade experience from visiting this city due to this accommodation
problem. This in turn creates several problems for the service providers relating to the tourism
system.
Apart from these issues, another issue that this city has been facing despite huge
economic growth is urban planning, design and environment (Darbellay and Stock 2012). It has
been evident from few studies that there has been significant growth in several areas of this city
including- livability, accessibility, economy and others. Despite such strong urban as well as
economic development, this city has been meeting with several issues such as high population
density and so on. Huge population density of this city creates problems of housing crisis. This in
turn puts huge pressure on the public housing system. In addition to this, supply of water is

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another issue that occurs in this city due to rising demand of the population. However, the
tourists visiting this city face numerous issues due to lack of water and housing supply. High
population density of Tokyo also creates issues on safety of areas and prices of properties in this
city. Due to such increased property prices, the local government faces several challenges
regarding development of the tourism system.
Despite the presence of tourism assets in this city, the information about them as well as
their appeal is not communicated to the tourist (Limited 2018). However, this less awareness
mainly contributes to imbalance of visitor portfolio and skewed tourist regional distribution.
There are three basic issues underlying the low awareness of this city’s tourism assets. These
includes- lack of international perspective in companies that manage tourism marketing, absence
of platform for capturing praise, requirement of developing a platform for managing repeat
visitors.
All the promotional strategies relating to tourism are not always effective. However, the
service model becomes limited and this causes problem for the service providers relating to
tourism. In addition to this, one of the basic problems underlying here include the dearth of the
service model in this city and the lack of resources as well as capabilities. However, the
cooperation between private and public sectors in several arenas – for instance, aggregating all
tourist information and providing end- to- end experience is limited. No clear organization has
taken a lead to prepare for as well as accelerate inbound demand. There are some cases, which
reflect that inbound tourism has been a less priority in comparison to outbound or domestic
demand. This in turn creates several problems for this city owing to less capabilities or
infrastructure for accommodating the tourists. Additionally, few evidences reflect that this

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destination has been facing huge problem in meeting the requirements of international as well as
domestic tourist with its diverse cultural backgrounds.
As this nation has a mono- ethic as well as monolingual economy that place huge priority
on cultural identity, there arises a propensity to reject those people from varied cultures.
However, these prejudices adversely affect tourism system in this destination. The tourists with
varied linguistic as well as cultural backgrounds usually show divergence in their attitudes,
which in turn creates several problems for the service providers related to tourism.
Overall, the reasons for which this destination has been unpopular are given below-
 Publicity issues- Lack of quality advertising creates difficulty for the service providers to
communicate with people around the world. The advertising campaigns launched by local
government including-“Cool Japan” has not been proper for attracting tourists in this
location.
 High cost- Transportation as well as accommodation in this destination has been highly
costly. Owing to this, foreign tourists from USA do not visit this location, which in turn
lowers the profit of Tokyo’s tourism industry.
 Lost in translation- The people residing in this location have less English knowledge and
this makes communication highly difficult for tourist. Thus, the tourist service providers
face problems in communicating with the visitors.
 Convenience issues-This place has been considered as incredibly inconvenient. The
airports are situated far off from Tokyo’s central city. Although this country is
technologically advanced, not all the areas of Tokyo have Wifi facilities.

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Impacts of tourism activity on the host community at Tokyo
Tourism activities have positive as well as negative impacts on the host community in Tokyo.
These effects are explained below:
Economic impact
Tourism activities influence the economy at local as well as regional levels both
positively and negatively. Tourism activities can benefit the host communities by creating job
opportunities and improve standards of living. On the contrary, the amount of fund generated
from these tourism activities might adversely affect the host community of the city.
Positive impact
Tourism in this location creates several jobs via direct as well as indirect employment in
retail and the transportation industry. The tourism activity also provides huge opportunities for
small- scale enterprises operating in this city, which in turn leads to generation of additional tax
revenues. The local government uses this revenue for the development of schools, hospitals and
so on.
Negative impact
The jobs created by tourism are generally poorly paid as well as seasonal. In addition to
this, the tourism activities in this destination also increases price of goods and services and local
properties. Therefore, the total amount of funds that is generated from the tourism activities
might not eventually benefit host community as it goes to biggest multinational corporations.
Apart from this, natural calamities and economic recession that impacts this nation also

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adversely impacts on its tourism activities. However, the cost relating to tourism activities are
generally borne by the government, which in turn leads to huge tax revenues.
Environmental impact
Zae and Zaei (2013) cites that an attractive environment usually appeals the tourist and provides
stimulus for travelling. It has been found out by some researchers that tourism activities not only
impact the environment of the host community positively but also impact it negatively.
Positive impact
The tourism activities mainly ecotourism assists in promotion of natural resource
conservation, which includes- rain forests, wildlife preservation since they are taken into account
as assets of tourism. In addition to this, it also facilitates in funds generation for maintenance of
animal reserves and parks by means of entrance charges and guiding fees. By creation of other
employment sources, issues such as over-fishing, deforestation might be decreased by tourism
activities.
Negative impact
It has been opined by Zaei and Zaei (2013) that, tourism activities in this city poses a
threat to the cultural as well as natural resources of this destination such as coral reefs, water
supply, heritage sites owing to overuse. In fact, the pollution level in the city might also increase
owing to increased sewage production, traffic emission and so on.
Socio as well as Cultural impact
Tourism might have several impacts on cultural as well as social aspects of people’s life
in a specific region. The communication between host community and tourists might impact the

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community if the tourist is not sensitive to traditions and local customs. The positive and
negative impacts are explained below:
Positive impact
Tourism activities results in improvement of infrastructure along with leisure amenities,
which in turn benefits the host communities. It also motivates traditional festivals, handicrafts,
and customs to be preserved as well as leads to creation of pride. In addition to this, better
understanding of culture might be created through interactions of host as well as guest, raises
awareness of several problems that are related to poverty, human rights on the global scale.
Negative impact
The behavior and attitude of tourists visiting this destination detrimentally impact the
quality of host community’s life. Recent evidences reflect that crowding as well as congestion,
rise in crime, issues of drug have taken place in this city due to arrival of varied culture tourists.
The tourism activities also results in infringement of human rights along with displacement of
local people from their own land in order to construct new hotels for accommodating increasing
number of tourists. Even the traditional cultures and values of this host community are also
eroded owing to interactions with the tourist (Williams 2017).
Four policy implications to achieve sustainable tourism outcomes for Tokyo
Recent facts highlight that the total number of tourists to Tokyo has been growing over
the past few years. Tokyo lacks the sustainable tourism policy and hence it must be formulated
and adopted by the government (Mitani 2008). The four policy implications that the government
should adopt to achieve sustainable tourism outcomes for this location are explained below:

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 A proper governance framework must be created by specifying strategic roles of
stakeholders for particular tourism related problems
 Good cooperation between private and public sectors should be done and inbound
promotion with wide tourism policies should be integrated.
 The tourist service providers must respond to every requirement of tourists in an effective
way. In fact, the planners must innovate products for holiday packages in order to achieve
sustainable tourism outcomes (Andonian et al. 2016)
 The public policy must be made stronger and should emphasize on improvements in
environment, physical resources and education of people. This in turn will help to attain
sustainable tourism outcomes for this destination.

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References
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tourism: path for sustainable growth towards 2020. McKinsey Japan and Travel, Transport and
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(accessed May 16, 2018).
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V., 2014, May. Building a personalized tourist attraction recommender system using
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multi-agent systems(pp. 1631-1632). International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and
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Charlesworth, S., 2017. Cultural Tourism in Japan: A Critical Analysis of Tourists Perceptions
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Darbellay, F. and Stock, M., 2012. Tourism as complex interdisciplinary research object. Annals
of Tourism Research, 39(1), pp.441-458.
Dennis C. McCornac and Rong Zhang, T. (2018). Japan’s International Tourism Challenge.
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[Accessed 16 May 2018].

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Mitani, S., 2008. Green tourism, environmentally sound rural tourism in Japan:
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Zaei, M.E. and Zaei, M.E., 2013. The impacts of tourism industry on host community. European
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