With less than 500 days to go until Kansai’s hosting of the Osaka Expo, Japan is stepping up promotion of its regional areas alongside expo-related campaigns in the hope that visitors to the expo will be inspired to travel around the country.
The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has created new webpages, available in English, Chinese and simplified Chinese, to use the Osaka Expo as an opportunity to increase recognition of the diversity of regional tourism possible in Japan.
The pages will be released in stages, with the initial content providing information on making the most of the expo and planning a trip to Japan. Successive content will introduce detailed tourist information and travel tips, followed by model courses that could be completed before or after visiting the expo.
JNTO will also link the new pages to the official Expo 2025 website, as its primary target audience is potential tourists looking for information about visiting the expo.
Expo officials predict 28 million people from 150 countries and regions will visit the expo during the six months it will be held, from April 13 to October 13, 2025, out of which 3.5 million are expected to be international tourists, a JNTO spokesperson told TTG Asia, adding that the global event presents “a great opportunity (for inbound visitors) to know Japan’s travel destinations”.
JNTO plans to “utilise its network of overseas offices and contact overseas travel agents well, sharing useful information about Osaka travel and the expo” to attract as many travellers as possible, the spokesperson continued.
The expo, which will be held on the island of Yumeshima in Osaka Prefecture, is designed to empower visitors to use shared knowledge to solve global problems. In 2025, the theme will be Designing Future Society for Our Lives, with a sub-theme of saving, empowering and connecting lives.
