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JapanTouristRe-connecting Japan

to foreign tourists

Nov 2011 v1-9Press Conference Packet

By:

& Regional Partners

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Introducing JapanTourist

• Grassroots Japan-wide network of partners improving Japan’s tourism marketing to world

– Contribution from all: local Japanese and foreign communities

– “Tourists” = leisure and business travelers

• Japan as an adventure destination– Change Japan’s image as place for old

people to look at things– Strong emphasis on local regions – new

and unique interest– Lots of detail, fun travel ideas

• Eliminating language barrier with natural, compelling English

– Partners include foreigners, bilingual Japanese

– “Foreigners-to-foreigners” means better messaging and targeting

– Chinese and Korean in 2012• Using latest technologies

– Japan’s only English-language “kuchikomi” (user reviews) travel site

– iPhone, Android apps– Automated reward system for

contributors

CONTENTUsersEditors

Merchants

Foreign & Japanese Editors Travelers

Foreign & Japanese Residents

BusinessBudget travelersTourists

Content Contributors

Global audience

Social

Media

Web

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Introducing Metropolis

• In conjunction with our Partners, JapanTourist is produced by Metropolis magazine

– Japan’s largest English-language magazine• ABC audited, 30,000 copies per issue (2-weekly)

– Accounts for approx. 40% by volume of ALL English magazines, 55% by value of all English-language ad sales

– Highly experienced, we understand foreign mind-set– Established 1995, almost 1,000 issues to date– Targeting foreign residents, visitors, and tourists in Tokyo

• Metropolis offers– High design skills, commercial-level English journalism– Thorough understanding of how to motivate an audience– Creativity, trend-setting content, quality photography– Size and ability to take on major projects (25+ staff, many

more freelancers)– Proven team: sister company produced Tokyo

Metropolitan Government Tourism booklet for both 2010 and 2011

• Web experience– Largest English-language websites in following categories– www.metropolis.co.jp (Main site)– www.metrodining.jp (Dining recommendation site)– www.metrohomes.jp (Real estate site)– Also, http://shop.metropolis.co.jp/ (Online

shopping)

ABC Audited30,000 copies

Tokyo Conventions & Visitors Bureau www.tcvb.or.jp

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Comparing JapanTourist

• Regional model– Unique, not just one company, but a

target of 47+ partners• Around each partner a “cell” of 20-200

contributing writers = 100’s of writers– Not just Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto, but full

coverage other local regions• In-depth knowledge of their markets

• Targeting– Like TripAdvisor.com – but just Japan– Targeting independent, repeat

travelers to Japan• Dedication to content

– Intending to become largest English-language resource in Japan, 10-15x more article volume*

– Authentic, first-person coverage by dozens of editors

– All in professionally edited English, not translated or left in Japanese

– Photos by hundreds of semi-pro photographers

– English-language kuchikomi by thousands of users, both bilingual Japanese and foreign travelers

– Full rights to syndicate and expand reach/affiliations with other major travel sites around globe

User incentives/rewards

Commercial site

Full IP/syndication rights

100+ Japan editorial contributors

1,000+ Japan full-length articles

Features

iPhone, Android apps*

Merchant content tools

User reviews functions

No. full-length articles 826 4,500 900/mth1,778 479

Notes: 1. All japantourist numbers are Dec 2011 estimates2. iPhone, Android apps under development3. TripAdvisor doesn’t publish full-length articles. We approximated

shorter traveler articles (not to be confused with user comments)4. Competitor article counts are approximate

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Unlimited number

JapanTourist Market

3.49 million English speakers*2.4m S. Koreans*

1.4m mainland Chinese*1.27m Taiwanese*

• English important– 3 major language

groups amongst tourists

– English, Chinese, Korean

– English is spoken by most tourists who are not Chinese/Korean

– Largest group and primary target

– SE Asians are most likely to be repeaters, and use English as second language

• Foreigners living in Japan

– We also target foreigners living in Japan

– Metropolis current core is 75,000 wealthy English-speaking residents

305,000*Resident English speakers in Japan

Note: *JTM (JNTO) 2010** Metropolis estimate 2010

Foreigners interested in Japan

Tourists

Japanese wanting to help foreigners discover Japan

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JapanTourist Site Map

• Importance of Organized Content:– Five content sources

• Regional Partners and their contributors, Subject Matter Partners, Editors of Metropolis, Users (kuchikomi), and Merchants/venues

– Content organized by location and by activity, allowing quick, easy-to-understand presentation of travel information to visitors

• Activities include: sports, culture, museums, trekking, historic sites, festivals, shopping, sightseeing, martial arts, winter sports, water sports, hot springs, night life, trade shows, and more

– Content fully indexed and available through simple search or advanced search

Home Page(Tourists to Japan)

See-Do(Sightseeing,

shopping, sports, events)

Stay(Hotels, onsen, ryokan, short-term apartments,

hostels)

Travel (Planes, ships, trains, buses,

rental cars, cycling, walking/trekking)

Dine(Bars, Restaurants, Snacks/Delicacies)

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How We Can be Largest

• Massive grass roots campaign

– Network of 45* regional partners recruit 100’s of contributors – articles, photos, videos

– We PR appeal to millions of Japanese – to kick-start

– Totally new approach to Japan inbound tourism – high interest value

– Resulting volume of content makes us largest

• Grass roots means we can reach regions in Japan not normally involved in foreign inbound tourism

– Adding to the novelty and interest both domestically and abroad

Contents database

Housewives

Foreign English Teachers

College English Professors

Retired Business people

Company Employees

Students

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N+1

Partner

Note: Currently 27 partners – remainder by Dec12

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EVERY Prefecture, Every City

• Other websites skip most regional cities and prefectures

• Our goal is to open up EVERY part of Japan and show what a great country it is

• Our system will ensure both sufficient content, and direction of visitors to courses without regard to location

– Thus driving tourists to less traveled regions and giving them more authentic experiences – which they will want to talk about

Hokkaido

YamagataIbaraki

ToyamaSaitama

Tokyo NiigataKanagawa

Aichi

Gunma

Tottori

Tochigi

Shimane

Chiba

Okayama

Nagano

Hiroshima

ShizuokaIshikawaKyoto

YamanashiFukuiHyogoOsaka Nara Wakayama

Kagawa EhimeYamaguchi

Fukuoka KumamotoOita Okinawa

SagaMiyazaki

Nagasaki

Fukushima

* Nov 1st: 32 prefectures covered, others under negotiation

Aomori MiyagiAkita

GifuMie Shiga

TokushimaKochi

Kagoshima

Iwate

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Content Ecosystem• 3 types of content

– Served on PCs and Mobile• Editorial

– Until tourists start coming back, this is our major content

– We reward contributors both with recognition and vouchers

– Voucher system is unique for user supported site

• User reviews (“kuchikomi”)– Proven way to build credibility and user

action– Popularized Japan and abroad

(Tabelog, Yelp, Rakutentravel, Lonely Planet, etc.)

– JapanTourist is only English-language kuchikomi site in Japan

• Merchant messaging– Menus, promotions, discount

vouchers, introduction of staff and improvements, etc.

– Commercial Partners are a special version of Merchants, with additional acknowledgement and branding

Contents database

Email feedback

Fair ranking & influence algorithms

Rewards for contributors

Mobile phone apps

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USERS: Kuchikomi comments and reviews

CONTRIBUTORS: editorial stories

MERCHANTS: Shop messages

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Work-Reward System

• Unique system provides rewards for users who contribute to the site

– Reinforces interest of contributors– Improves quality of contributions– Provides companies with a non-cash

way to be involved in the project• Two types of contributors

– Casual users, who are unsupervised • Content is sampled. reviewed for

appropriateness)• Casual user contributions go into User

Reviews content stream• Rewards points are small and frequent

– “Semi-pro” contributors, who act as freelance journalists

• Content fully reviewed, accepted/rejected by Regional Partners

• Semi-pro contributions go to into Editorial content stream

• Rewards come from Commercial Partners

– See next page• Rewards are self-serve for easier

logistics– Creates high traffic, high contribution– Easy to maintain and service

Regular Users (reviews, comments)

“Semi-pro” writers (editorial)

Contents database

Online, self-serve Reward System

Regional Partners

Unsupervised, but sampled In-house

Editors

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Partnering

• Four types of partners– Regional Partners

• Contributing 100’s of full-length articles per year for their region• Organizing content contributors and supporters• Helping to improve regional tourism facilities and support• Marketing of regional sites and services• International sales of regional goods• Partners in 30+ prefectures already signed and producing content

– Commercial Partners• Unlike regular advertisers, commercial partners assist with upfront funding

and goods/services to help create support for our project by the public• Get advertising on website and corporate image PR in return

– Example, Delta Airlines is giving return international airfares as incentives for locally based contributors who write articles for JapanTourist

– Other brand name companies are joining in – they want to help Japan• Commercial partners recognize that JapanTourist is different and exciting• We expect to have more than 20 commercial partners by Dec 2011

– Traffic Partners• Exposing us to web traffic and thereby customers• Traffic = advertisers = viability of website• Maps/Places partnership with Google already signed• More discussions with foreign (mainly US) portals, to be named later

– Subject Matter Partners (starting 2012)• Creating subject matter content with expert knowledge• Content is not location specific, but feeds into prefectures – food, sports,

culture, history, arts, etc.– Thus allowing tourists to choose according to area of interest

• Acknowledged experts in their field, or can access expertise

Partners to Bring Foreign Tourists Back to Japan

(Others under negotiation)

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Vouchers and Logistics

• Contributors add content to system, and as they do, earn points that can be “spent” on a closed shopping site

• Rewards are PDF vouchers for services and goods from participating companies

– Vouchers define offer terms and conditions• Per the website rules, users are limited to

just those items on the shopping site– If they are dissatisfied with the offerings, they

can either reject the available inventory and wait for new offerings to appear, or they can stop contributing

• Users receive rewards by redeeming the PDF with their points, using a shopping system

– Our shopping cart redemptions are approved by a human before approval – thus preventing fraud

– After receiving a reward PDF, user reads instructions on how to redeem at stores, online, etc.

• Commercial Partners need to have a call center or online system that accepts such redemptions

Dining

Air Travel

Apparel

Hotel StaysPhone cardsOther

PDF Voucher

from Website

(Others under negotiation)

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Regional Partners

• Role of Regional Partners– Regional Partners are critical to the success of JapanTourist– Regional Partners provide four key functions:

• Offer web visitors an emotional connection, saying Japan is safe, fun, and interesting

• Offer regional tourism providers a window to international marketing– Even locations that have no budget will be covered

• Act as links in a network covering all of Japan, allowing the website to be larger than the sum of the parts

• Able to offer each other Partner assistance and teamwork• Regional partners responsible for:

– Creating content for a region, making it interesting for foreign visitors– Posting and maintaining that content on JapanTourist web engines– Finding and contracting sponsors/advertisers– Local business development

• Our target is 47-50 Regional Partners– Some regions, such as Kanagawa and Osaka have multiple partners

• Commercial arrangement– Regional partners have own SOHO and regular businesses– Earn share of revenues, not required to carry website costs– Able to start side businesses which are marketed on JapanTourist at a

favorable rate

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Commercial Partners

• Commercial Partners are companies that believe in the JapanTourist vision

– Not just advertisers, but willing to make early, deeper commitment to help us make JapanTourist a success

• Contribution– Partnering fee, goods/services– Use of name in co-promotion

• Benefits– Share of 20% of top page banner ads (12 months)– Fixed pricing on other ad inventory purchased (12 months)– Editorial slot on top age, rotating with other Commercial

Partners– Mention on Partners page set aside for Commercial

Partners– Commercial arrangement to drive business from site to

partner • Such as widgets for visitors to buy product/services direct from

our site– Right to use “Grassroots community for foreign travelers”

concept in corporate PR

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Project Scope & Staging

• Two-stage roll-out, anticipating Fukushima clean-up by Jan-Feb 2012

• Phase One– Target Japanese goodwill, – Create massive content

• 1,000 stories, 3,000 photos by Dec 2011

• Cells of 45 x 20-200 = 900-9,000 contributors

• PR to 1-3m audience with Delta brand name

• Phase Two– Focus on foreign tourists– Create automated content

(kuchikomi) reviews• 10,000 editorial stories, 15,000

photos and videos by Dec 2012• 10,000+ kuchikomi reviews by

Dec 2012• 10m PVs/month by June 2012

Contributed Editorial

In-house Content

Kuchikomi

Japanese public

Contributors

Foreign Tourists

Contributed Editorial

In-house Content

Kuchikomi

Japanese public

Contributors

Foreign Tourists

Focus: Japanese Public Goodwill

Phase One

Focus: Foreign Tourists

Phase Two

Initial primary PR target as site builds momentum

Eventual target as site builds traffic and partners

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Phased approach

• Stage One (October, 2011)– Launch of English-speaking tourist web portal covering 30+ prefectures around Japan

• Content already being developed (rising to 900 articles/month)– Commercialization

• Signing of initial Commercial Partners• Hotel/travel booking engine partner selection• Signing of initial advertising clients

– Rewards store for contributors, testing begins• Stage Two (January, 2012)

– Full coverage of remaining prefectures• Sales and marketing at regional level begins in earnest

– Web store begins– Signing of subject matter partners– Discussions with international Traffic Partners (travel portals)

• Stage Three (March, 2012)– Work on international syndication – Partner specialty commercialization projects start

• Specialty web pages and websites– Insurance services and Language Service Desk begin– Group Buying testing

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Revenue Sources

• Primary– Advertisements, promotions by merchants and venues

• Reason why site has to be large and represent most of Japan– Language, technology, media services to merchants– Nationwide online advertising for service companies

• Travel agencies, hotel chains, rental car companies, etc.– Travel booking services (Commercial Partners only)

• For Hotels, travel, prepaid attractions• Specialty tours through licenced travel agency

• Secondary– Web store

• Omiyage, special Japan-themed goods ordered on web– Group buying

• Special offers to tourists buying in groups– Services

• Insurance, traveler help desk (bilingual)

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In Closing

• Japan Tourist– A grassroots network of ”friends of Japan” building local communities of English-language

content contributors to bring foreign tourists back to Japan, and a web platform to build upon

• Websters Dictionary• tour·ist [too r-ist] noun. A person who is traveling, especially for pleasure.

– Our definition• ja·pan tour·ist [juh-pan too r-ist] noun. A person who is who is well informed, traveling to Japan for

pleasure.

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Contacts• Operator of JapanTourist

– Metropolis KK, www.metropolis.co.jp• CEO and Project Manager

– Terrie Lloyd– Email:

• terrie@japantourist.jp• tokyo@japantourist.jp

• Marketing Contact– Dai Tanaka

• Dai.tanaka@japantourist.jp• marketing@japantourist.jp

• Web: www.japantourist.jp/tokyo• Tel: (03) 4550-2926• Fax: (03) 4550-2859