- Overnight Preparation for the Meeting and Active Discussions

The purpose of the Council for Promotion of Tourism in Asia is to discuss how to promote the "Welcome to Asia" campaign, one of the ANMC21 joint projects.

One of the topics of the latest meeting was the implementation of multi-destination tours within Asia, with a provisionary name of "One Asia Pass." The Council agreed in 2011 to start with trial tour packages that cover ground arrangements such as accommodations and plans for sightseeing of the Asian cities, leaving air tickets apart from the packages as there are still agendas including airline alliance networks. As each city has different challenges for concrete operation of the project and the changes such as more low-cost careers entering the market are occurring rapidly, member cities must discuss and reach an agreement at the Annual Meeting held only once a year to catch up with these issues. The Secretariat worked to gather opinions of each city in advance and coordinated these opinions in Hanoi even until the meeting started. With such efforts, the city representatives were able to have active discussions and reach an agreement on the concrete operation of the pass.

Complete preparation including equipments is needed to manage the meeting smoothly. This conference required simultaneous relayed translation in three languages: Japanese, Vietnamese and English. But when the interpreting equipment was tested on the night before the meeting, it turned out that it had no relay function. So we worked with the person in charge from the city of Hanoi late into the night and finally arranged other equipment just in time for the meeting.

On the second day, there was Extension Meeting inviting private travel companies in Hanoi. The main theme of the conference was "Development of sustainable tourism" and member cities shared past experiences to provide a good opportunity to learn from each other. The Hanoi travel companies gave very stimulating questions to us. Mr. Dung, Deputy Director of Hanoi City answered with his longtime experience and expertise in the tourism industry. That was also highly suggestive to Tokyo.

- Promoting Charms of Member Cities

During the meeting, the CPTA exhibition to promote tourism resources of each member city was held in the courtyard of the hotel.

With an aim to attract more Vietnamese tourists increasing with the economic development, each city uniquely decorated its own booth and Hanoi offered Tokyo with two booths as the Secretariat. The Vietnamese are very pro-Japanese. For example they call housekeepers "Oshin-san" like the famous character featured in the Japanese TV Drama "Oshin." In order to promote charms of Tokyo where people can enjoy both the tradition and the modern, we made full use of the big space to offer an hands-on exhibition. The most popular part of the exhibit was a ringtoss game corner where not only Hanoi citizens but also the Vice Chairwoman of Hanoi people's Committee and the representatives of member cities got excited as they won Japanese snacks and sweets. In recent years, Vietnamese people can play this game even in local supermarkets and therefore some people were so good at a ringtoss that they were giving tips to us! And in front of the Tokyo Booth elaborately decorated with cherry blossoms, Director General for Bureau of Industrial and Labor Affairs, who chaired the meeting, was surrounded by the press asking him many questions.

We also had the help of Japanese travel agents in Vietnam who are sending their customers to Tokyo in our exhibition. Although we informed them of the exhibition only two weeks before the meeting, they kindly managed to prepare posters and pamphlets in such a short notice to help us attract more tourists to Tokyo.

- Working with Global Standards as a Tokyo Metropolitan Government official

Some say we are now in the 2nd Age of Exploration, in which people, goods and money move across the boundary all over the globe. On the contrary, more Japanese young people today are said to have "inward-looking" perspective as they often try to avoid studying or working abroad. Therefore, this kind of meeting and joint projects gives us a precious opportunity to realize the position of Tokyo in the world.
Tokyo, as a global city, must keep its presence as a leader in Asia. We, as Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials, work together with the member cities who have different ways of thinking and acting, and communicate with them in English, which is the global language and official language of the ANMC21, when preparing for the Council for Promotion of Tourism in Asia.

When preparing for the meeting and joint projects, we spend our entire time to adjust member cities' opinions by making phone calls and writing e-mails every day. Before and after the conference, we use so-called "elevator pitch", giving an explanation of the project within 30 seconds. We sometimes have to argue strongly in English when it comes to handling a tough negotiation. Through such firsthand experience of strong partnership and collaboration, we are acquiring skills that meet the global standard such as how to carry forward projects and communicate with each other effectively.
We may have confidence and identity as well as expertise and specialties based on broad perspective as officials of global city Tokyo. Furthermore, by overcoming differences in language, cultures and values, communication skills for building friendships with overseas countries, creativity of new values and leadership toward the world are the internationally working abilities gained from handling these projects. Our consistent efforts help Tokyo keep its leading position in the world changing globally. This I believe will be the driving force that encourages Asian countries to bloom as a whole.

The economies of member cities of Welcome Asia Campaign are growing more and more rapidly. This joint project will not only attract more visitors from Europe, the U.S. and Australia but also enhance Asian people traveling between each city.

* Oshin is a Japanese TV drama broadcasted almost 30 year ago in 1983. Its main female character named Oshin has grown up to a tough person by overcoming several difficulties. This drama is still famous and has many fans internationally.