Does Emphasizing "This is the Best in the World" Really Bring in Foreign Tourists?
Looking at brochures that Japanese governments and private firms create (in English and other foreign languages) targetting visitors to the country, there is often a tendency to resort to extreme ways in describing some highlights. Phrases like "the best food," the "most beautiful temple," and the "best preserved natural landscape" abounds, both when the said brochures try to compare themselves to other, similar attractions across Japan and in other countries. Such emphasis on the extreme can seriously distort the image of the country in ways that are, in the long term, detrimental to attracting more tourists from abroad.
The first danger lies in the ability of such extreme messaging in how Japanese people see their own country. By presenting to the public only messages of how Japan is good at something and bringing up only examples of foreigners enjoying the thing, misconceptions become entrenched in the minds of Japanese people. Convinced that Japanese tourist resources are indeed the best the world has to offer, they become less keen to think about ways that the resources can be improved in the eyes of the foreigners. Instead, those foreigners who speak ill of the resources are simply dismissed as not the intended targets of a tourist drive.
Indeed, presenting Japan as best at something presents an overly optimistic picture, to both people in the tourism industry and the general public, that more foreign tourists coming to Japan is simply a matter of time and the only thing that needs to be done is creating more global awareness about the best things Japan has to offer. Hence all the energy and money is spent doing marketing (like those over the top travel brochures in foreign languages) even though at least some significant chunk of time and resources should be spent on improving the tourist destinations in the first place to create more values for potential foreign visitors.
If anything, in this day and age when Globetrotters and consumer-generated media (CGM) are ubiquitous, those who are seeking honest opinions about what is it like for foreigners to go as tourists in any country can easily acquire many differing views in a matter of few minutes on the Internet. For every exaggerated opinion about how great a tourist destination is, there are plenty of others who write just as logically and comprehensively about the downsides. To simply distribute a bunch of glossy brochures describing something extremely positively no longer works when people can gather information from countless others.
In such an environment, the persistence with which the Japanese choose to describe their tourist resources as simply the best the world has to offer is more than just hypocrisy. It can be taken by foreigners as a sign of delusion rooted in a combination of ignorance in what other countries has to offer and a clear lack of respect for simple differences in cultures and places among different countries that cannot be put in terms of what is good and what is bad. The more the Japanese insist to use the term "the best" to describe anything peculiar to Japan only serves to generate negative opinions about Japanese people among foreigners.
Such negative opinions, in the long run, is what hurts the prospects of Japanese tourism. People from anywhere in the world has something to be proud of about their homelands and thus demand a certain amount of respect. Even the richest and most developed nations can learn much from the simple lifestyles of the most impoverished and, as some would put it, least sophisticated. When the Japanese present themselves as the best in something and use some foreigners in efforts to prove their superiority, many foreigners see the attempts as vague insults at their own cultures and homelands.
Ultimately, a better approach for Japan seeking to draw and retain more foreign tourists is to humbly emphasize that Japan is simply different from many other places in the world. Such a difference, it should be noted, is not a cause of one place being better than the other in any way. Foreign travelers who come to Japan should be in Japan not to find the best, the most beautiful, or the greatest. Rather, they should come because Japan might be the place that they can conveniently access, which provide some of the most different and thus most eye-opening experiences they can experience.
Simultaneously, Japan needs to present the efforts to attract foreign travelers, not a one-way street of foreigners learning about Japan, but a two-way conversation where Japan is also fully embracing the foreigners. By presenting Japan as being open to change, based on its interaction with foreigners that choose to visit, foreigners would be left with a positive impression of a country that is not domineering but humble and studious, willing to constantly improve itself by absorbing positive aspects of other cultures. Such a presentation is much more relatable than screaming how Japan is the best for anything.
The first danger lies in the ability of such extreme messaging in how Japanese people see their own country. By presenting to the public only messages of how Japan is good at something and bringing up only examples of foreigners enjoying the thing, misconceptions become entrenched in the minds of Japanese people. Convinced that Japanese tourist resources are indeed the best the world has to offer, they become less keen to think about ways that the resources can be improved in the eyes of the foreigners. Instead, those foreigners who speak ill of the resources are simply dismissed as not the intended targets of a tourist drive.
Indeed, presenting Japan as best at something presents an overly optimistic picture, to both people in the tourism industry and the general public, that more foreign tourists coming to Japan is simply a matter of time and the only thing that needs to be done is creating more global awareness about the best things Japan has to offer. Hence all the energy and money is spent doing marketing (like those over the top travel brochures in foreign languages) even though at least some significant chunk of time and resources should be spent on improving the tourist destinations in the first place to create more values for potential foreign visitors.
If anything, in this day and age when Globetrotters and consumer-generated media (CGM) are ubiquitous, those who are seeking honest opinions about what is it like for foreigners to go as tourists in any country can easily acquire many differing views in a matter of few minutes on the Internet. For every exaggerated opinion about how great a tourist destination is, there are plenty of others who write just as logically and comprehensively about the downsides. To simply distribute a bunch of glossy brochures describing something extremely positively no longer works when people can gather information from countless others.
In such an environment, the persistence with which the Japanese choose to describe their tourist resources as simply the best the world has to offer is more than just hypocrisy. It can be taken by foreigners as a sign of delusion rooted in a combination of ignorance in what other countries has to offer and a clear lack of respect for simple differences in cultures and places among different countries that cannot be put in terms of what is good and what is bad. The more the Japanese insist to use the term "the best" to describe anything peculiar to Japan only serves to generate negative opinions about Japanese people among foreigners.
Such negative opinions, in the long run, is what hurts the prospects of Japanese tourism. People from anywhere in the world has something to be proud of about their homelands and thus demand a certain amount of respect. Even the richest and most developed nations can learn much from the simple lifestyles of the most impoverished and, as some would put it, least sophisticated. When the Japanese present themselves as the best in something and use some foreigners in efforts to prove their superiority, many foreigners see the attempts as vague insults at their own cultures and homelands.
Ultimately, a better approach for Japan seeking to draw and retain more foreign tourists is to humbly emphasize that Japan is simply different from many other places in the world. Such a difference, it should be noted, is not a cause of one place being better than the other in any way. Foreign travelers who come to Japan should be in Japan not to find the best, the most beautiful, or the greatest. Rather, they should come because Japan might be the place that they can conveniently access, which provide some of the most different and thus most eye-opening experiences they can experience.
Simultaneously, Japan needs to present the efforts to attract foreign travelers, not a one-way street of foreigners learning about Japan, but a two-way conversation where Japan is also fully embracing the foreigners. By presenting Japan as being open to change, based on its interaction with foreigners that choose to visit, foreigners would be left with a positive impression of a country that is not domineering but humble and studious, willing to constantly improve itself by absorbing positive aspects of other cultures. Such a presentation is much more relatable than screaming how Japan is the best for anything.
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