Letter to the editor "Ways to increase the number of tourists visiting Hyogo Prefecture"
By Adam Roberts, Spring 2009 update

To increase tourism in Hyogo, the entire prefecture must be put on display from natural wonders to buildings and people who are of cultural importance. The solution is simply to ask yourself what would you want on a dream trip to Hyogo and there is the answer.

To increase tourism you need a dynamic web presence in multiple languages, including a website that all links can be directed towards. Social networking sites in English, like Mypsace and Facebook, should not be overlooked as a tool to expose Hyogo to potential tourists. Having a directory of English speaking businesses is good place to start since most tourists will not be fluent in Japanese. This is a very important factor for increasing tourism because tourists need a place to stay. If there are only a few big western hotels, tourists will be staying there and not all over the prefecture.

Easy access is another main factor because if tourists can get information in their language easily and make bookings for transportation, they will be more likely to explore Hyogo and not just close to their hotel. Many tourists do not want to stay in a western hotel and want a Japanese style room but the main factor that stops them is no shower or toilet in their room. Any accommodation business should install these as this is expected by western tourists.

Adding a .kmz file to the Hyogo Tourism website may also be useful since many PC users now have Google Earth installed on their computer and with all the extra information like photos, business information and links on Google Earth potential tourists can get to know Hyogo much better online.

Featuring popular sites in spite of their stereotypical nature, like castles and temples, will greatly increase interest in visiting Hyogo because western tourists come to Japan to see such sites. Most tourists want to see as much as possible in a limited amount of time, and adding a page where website visitors can click and add a location, including its contact information, to an itinerary that they can print out would be extremely useful. Since most tourists fly to Kansai International Airport or Narita Airport offering them a streamlined way to arrive in Hyogo is essential to increasing tourism.

Also an HTML newsletter would increase interest and by adding image URL, you can save a lot of bandwidth when you send the newsletter instead of attaching images and as the saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words."