The Transport Ministry will launch a campaign next week to encourage U.S. senior citizens to visit Japan in a bid to stimulate the slumping tourism industry, ministry officials said on Thursday.
During the one-month campaign, the Japan National Tourist Organization will air TV commercials and run advertisements in major newspapers in the U.S.
JNTO will also directly mail travel information to about 150,000 Americans, targeting senior citizens age 50 or older who earn more than $50,000 a year. Japan Airlines Co., All Nippon Airways Co. and Northwest Airlines will join the campaign.
The ministry selected the United States as a campaign target because its economy is strong and the capacity of Japan-U.S. air traffic has increased as a result of the bilateral civil aviation agreement concluded in January 1998, the officials said.
In 1997, about 620,000 Americans visited Japan, becoming the third-biggest tourism market to Japan after South Korea and Taiwan. While the overall number of foreign visitors to Japan declined about 3 percent last year, the number of American visitors is estimated to have grown 4.8 percent to about 650,000, according to the officials.
Through the campaign, the government hopes to sell Japan as a tourism destination because many U.S. visitors to Japan are business travelers, the officials said.