JAPAN aims to be a model that other mature cities can turn to when hosting an Olympics event, benefiting the destination long after the event has ended.
Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) president, Ryoichi Matsuyama, said while Japan’s reason to host the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 was to attract more visitors, ensuring that tourists would continue to come after the event was more important.
“We’re in the stage of seriously discussing what legacy to leave and it’s not finalised as there are so many stakeholders. One legacy, however, is for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 to be remembered as the most disabled-friendly. Another is how an established, mature city hosts the event sustainably. Normally, hosting the Olympics requires a heavy investment and the host suffers afterwards and is not able to sustain visitor growth.
“We are mindful not to spend too heavily and to ensure that visitors return after the event,” he told TTG Asia e-Daily on the sidelines of the WTTC Summit.
There would only be few new infrastructure projects built just for the Games and even the design of a new stadium, by renowned architect Zaha Hadid, has been scaled back to save costs, he said.
JNTO also recently signed an MOU with VisitBritain, “as London, which successfully hosted the Olympics in 2012, is also a mature city and there is much we can learn from it”, he said.
A Japan-UK tourism symposium – Growth strategy for tourism, making the best use of the Olympic and Paralympic Games – was held in London shortly after the signing.
Matsuyama is confident that there will be enough rooms to cater to the games. JNTO is “presenting facts” to hotel developers about the attractiveness of building more rooms in Tokyo, saying there is a need specifically for more four-star hotels.
Arrivals have continued to climb, reaching 13.4 million last year. Matsuyama expects 2015 to bring around 15 million visitors, acknowledging growth is only being constrained currently by a lack of rooms.
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