JAPAN is aiming to take advantage of its traditional strengths in technology, sciences and medicine to attract more MICE events and particularly hopes to win more business from Europe and North America.
“We have many Nobel Prize winners in these areas and we feel that the opportunity to meet and learn from them will attract participants from all over the world,” said Katsuaki Suzuki, executive director of the Japan Convention Bureau.
“We are (telling) potential delegates from abroad that they will be able to meet with Japanese scientists and researchers,” he added.
Leveraging the appeal of these experts, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has introduced the use of these experts as conference ambassadors to promote the country to foreign markets.
“At the moment, we have 21 university professors who serve as ambassadors and the scheme has had some success,” said Suzuki.
However, he admitted that some issues must be overcome before Japan’s MICE sector can fully take advantage of its unique position.
“Firstly, there is not enough support – financial and human resource – for organisers of conferences and events,” he said. “(The human resource limitation) is partly due to a lack of people with the necessary English language skills.”
Now that solutions are being devised to overcome these challenges, Suzuki believes the sector holds potential for Japanese companies.
“Incentive travel, particularly from markets in South-east Asia, has huge potential for us,” he said. “Those economies are developing rapidly and the JNTO is strengthening its marketing in those areas, such as through the opening of our Jakarta office last year.”
Ultimately, markets further afield are his prime targets. “We would like to attract more MICE business from Europe and North America as we have relatively little business from those areas and those events tend to be high-quality and, as a result, bring in a lot of money,” he added.
