From: Red Rock News, August 16 2013

Sedona Chamber of Commerce Tourism Bureau has been proactively promoting Sedona to the Japanese market for the past ten years, and we have seen a tremendous increase of visitors from Japan.

One of our key successes is having our own Japanese tour operator in Sedona that knows the culture, understands the needs of the visitors, and can communicate in their language.  Mitsuaki “Aki” Hanzawa opened Sedona’s first Japanese tour operating company, Atlas America International, in April 2004.  They work with Japanese tour companies and directly with consumers.  Aki says, “Not only understanding their culture but also understanding why they selected Sedona as their travel destination over other destinations is important to provide best customer service.”  Atlas America has been welcoming an average of 150 visitors from Japan monthly in the past nine years.  They are seeing more and more Japanese visitors who are interested in a variety of things to do and see in Sedona, compared to those visitors who were more inclined to experience the spiritual side of Sedona during their first years of operation.