Date: 4 March 2013
Japan sees big potential in Asian Muslim tourists.
GREATER ENTHUSIASM: More travel agencies are going all out
to ensure Muslims have a comfortable stay in their country
JAPAN has suffered a traumatic decrease of Chinese tourists
since the third quarter of last year, primarily because of Sino-Japan
territorial frictions. Filling the void are the new waves of tourists, notably
from Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as Taiwan and other Southeast Asian
countries.
The number of Chinese tourists dropped 33 per cent during
October, for example, but Malaysian tourists rose 66 per cent and Indonesians
40 per cent, compared with the same month the previous year.
The new trend is driving Japanese enthusiasm in preparing to
welcome Muslim visitors so that they can stay more comfortably in accordance
with their religious requirements.
More than 130,000 Malaysians visited Japan last year, up
nearly 14 per cent from the peak year of 2010, because of the growing Malaysian
middle class that can afford to travel abroad and launch of low-cost carriers.
These tourists include increasing Malay Muslims, who previously found it hard
to keep their religious practices in Japan.
The Muslim population in Japan is between 50,000 and
100,000, most of them followers from overseas. There are only fewer than 1,000
Japanese Muslims, it is said, in a country of 120 million people.
Allah's teachings are unfamiliar to most of the Japanese.
The new clientele in tourism is quickly educating Japanese travel business
about Muslims. "A major challenge was to ensure space for worship and
halal food for them," says Kazunari Kurosawa of Miyako Kokusai Co. Over
the past few years, the travel agency in Osaka has developed environments for
Asian Muslim visitors.
He studied about halal food and visited restaurants,
accompanied by Japan Halal Association officials, approved by Malaysia's Jakim
(Department of Islamic Advancement of Malaysia), to make sure they served
non-alcoholic, pork-free food.
He arranged that Muslim visitors always used new disposable
spoons, cups and other utensils taken directly to their mouths so that they are
free from cleaning alcohol commonly used in Japan. He also secured space for
musalla in shrines and other tourist spots and announced to his customers the
kiblat (direction of the Qaaba)
Kurosawa has since served about 500 Muslim tourists from
Malaysia and his spring tours for cherry blossom viewing are fully booked.
Many Southeast Asian tourists would also head for the
northern parts of Japan to see snow-covered Japan and enjoy skiing and other
"snow experiences" during winter. Hokkaido, the northernmost island,
lately enjoyed an increasing number of Southeast Asian visitors, including
Muslims.
In an unsurprising consequence, Chitose Outlet Mall Rera in
Sapporo has installed a prayer room so that Muslims can shop for many hours
without worrying about a place for prayers.
In October, the Japan Halal Business Association was founded
in Tokyo for promoting halal-related business and market by educating
businessmen about the traditions and halal requirements through publications,
seminars and campaigns. They invited former Malaysian prime minister Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad as keynote speaker at the halal forum in November.
The Japanese government is also learning quickly about the
potential of the faith-based tourism. The Japan National Tourism Organisation,
the government tourism-promoting arm, plans to create an official halal
guidebook for Muslim tourists, listing restaurants and worship places in Japan.
It hopes to increase the number of Southeast Asian tourists to one million,
double the number of 2011.
The organisation, in January signed a memorandum with the
Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents to promote inbound Malaysian
tourists. Also, last month, it held the Japan-Muslim tourism seminar for
Japanese businesses interested in promoting inbound Asian Muslim tourists.
Inbound tourists to Japan rose to 8.37 million last year,
recovering from the drop in the disaster-tainted previous year but lagging behind
the year's goal of nine million. "It is not a satisfactory situation
yet," said Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Akihiro Ohta.
Setting a new yearly goal at 10 million for this year, he pledged to promote
tourism by all means of all divisions of his ministry, obviously setting a big
target for Muslim visitors from Asia and other parts of the world.
By Mutsuko Murakami
Copyright © 2011 The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia)
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