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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Mitsuaki \u201cAki\u201d Hanzawa opened Sedona\u2019s first Japanese tour operating company, Atlas America International, in April 2004.\u00a0 They work with Japanese tour companies and directly with consumers.\u00a0 Aki says, \u201cNot 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.\u201d\u00a0 Atlas America has been welcoming an average of 150 visitors from Japan monthly in the past nine years.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
To gain destination awareness in Japan when it was still a new market for Sedona, the chamber has strategically focused on promoting the uniqueness of Sedona by emphasizing the spiritual aspect including the Native American history in the area.\u00a0 As awareness has increased, we have continued to kept introduce \u201cnew\u201d aspects of Sedona to the market. \u00a0This strategy has been working well and Aki\u2019s comments prove that consumers are responding to our efforts.<\/p>\n
Many tour operators saw business opportunities in Sedona in recent years and we now have four tour operators that only focus on the Japanese market. The newest is America Travel Factory that officially opened its Sedona Branch in May 2013.\u00a0 Tom Natsuhara, General Manager of their Los Angeles Head Office, said, \u201cOur main goal in 2013 is to have our own operation in Sedona to bring more Japanese visitors to Sedona as well as to the Phoenix, Grand Canyon, and Monument Valley areas.\u00a0 After extensive research and a study tour to Sedona in May 2012, we recognized that Sedona offers plenty of potential to all types of Japanese visitors. We believe our company can positively impact Japanese visitation to the area where people can stay longer and enjoy, relax and refresh themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are many Sedona businesses that are benefitting from that market as well.\u00a0 BODY BLISS Factory Direct at Sinagua Plaza in Uptown Sedona is one of the businesses that has seen a great success with the Japanese market.\u00a0 Chanda Schmidt, one of the owners says, \u201cJapanese visitors are truly appreciative of anything that is of quality and beauty.\u00a0 They are thankful, respectful and love personal attention.\u201d\u00a0 She commented that BODY BLISS found out early why Japanese visitors are attracted to their business and how they can make their stay in Sedona personal and unforgettable.\u00a0 Here are some tips she shares with Sedona businesses interested in working with that market.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Success in gaining business from a specific market requires cooperative efforts by the destination marketing organization, tour operators that connect the consumers and local businesses, and the readiness of the community to welcome those international guests. Providing useful information is also important.\u00a0 Statistics shows that the Japanese page of the Chamber\u2019s tourism site, VisitSedona.com, is the fourth visited page of the site as of July 31, 2013.\u00a0 Japan is the number two country (following the U.S.A.) where viewers of the site reside.<\/p>\n
The Chamber has just attended the regional destination seminar and workshop organized by Osamu Hoshino of Fieldstar International.\u00a0 Nearly 80 travel professionals from receptive tour operating companies in the Los Angeles area participated.\u00a0 \u201cThe Tour Product Inventory study this year shows that Arizona has maintained its momentum in the market in 2013. \u00a0Arizona tour products on the shelves in the Japanese market in 2013 have increased by 44% compared to 2010,\u201d says Osamu.\u00a0 It is imperative that we provide the travel industry professionals with new ideas and information in order to keep our region top of mind for them.\u00a0 The West Coast offices of the Japanese tour companies are very influential to their companies in the destination development decision-making process in Japan.\u00a0 They need to be educated to be able to respond to requests from their Japan offices.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The Chamber will also conduct a sales mission to Japan next month.\u00a0 It will partner with a rental car company to hold destination seminars in Tokyo and Osaka to promote Sedona as a hub for fly & drive programs.\u00a0 Additionally, ideas for group tour programs including incentive programs and Sedona Marathon Event will be given at the seminars.<\/p>\n
If you have any questions, please contact the Chamber at 928-204-1123.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From: Red Rock News,\u00a0August 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodyblissfactorydirect.com\/Jap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}