After a difficult 2011, following the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japan’s MICE industry has shown its resilience and jumped back into the top 10 in the latest International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) rankings. Japan sits eighth with 341 qualifying meeting after dropping to 13th in the year following the earthquake and tsunami.
The Japan National Tourism Organisation is currently targeting large-scale events of over 1,000 delegates to further boost its meetings industry, while many cities are looking to open or renovate conference facilities in the coming years.
In 2015, Sendai, the political, economic and cultural centre of Japan’s Tohoku region, will host 40,000 delegates for the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction (UN-WCDR). In addition to sharing its experiences and lessons from the earthquake, the conference has inspired the construction of a new convention facility in the city.
The new facility, connected to the existing International Convention Centre via a covered walkway, will add an additional 3,000sqm of exhibition space and four meeting rooms to the convention zone’s event capacity.
In a bid to attract more MICE business to the country the Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) recently appointed five cities (Fukuoka, Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo and Yokohama) as Global MICE Cities. This designation means that the central government, via the JTA, will assist the local city convention bureau and government in their targeting, marketing and promotion. “The first project under this scheme, a series of tv commercials, will begin airing on CNBC and cnbc.com in October,” says Director of the Japan Convention Bureau’s head office in Tokyo, Etsuko Kawasaki.
Recognising an increasing demand for unique venues for meetings and events, the JTA is also establishing a board to develop unique venues for MICE activities in Japan. “At the moment, museums and castles are widely available for use by international groups in Japan, but this board aims to widen this to a broader spectrum of awe-inspiring venues,” she says.
This was first published in issue 73/2013 of CMW. Any comments? Email cmw@mashmedia.net
