Japan Global Office Update
Japan Sales Mission & Seminars Update
Brand USA Japan provided training for more than 400 travel agents and tour operators this past summer in five cities in Japan. The training was designed to familiarize the Japanese travel industry with updated information about U.S. travel opportunities, and ultimately encourage more Japanese travelers to visit the United States.
The seminars presented the agents with details about prospective destinations beyond U.S. gateway cities, and introduced Brand USA’s new travel-trade website.
Japan Sales Mission
Brand USA hosted its second annual Japanese sales mission to Tokyo, July 9-10, followed with a mission to Korean.
Participating partners on the mission met with Japanese travel agents and tour operators in one-on-one meetings. Partners included: Alamo Rent-A-Car, Choose Chicago, Cirque du Soleil, Grand Hotel Sunnyvale & Cupertino, Grapevine Texas, Great River Road, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism, Maverick Helicopters, Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, TaxFree Shopping Texas, Travel Oregon, Tour America, Travel Nevada, Tualatin Valley Visitors Association, Universal Studios Hollywood, Visit California, Visit Seattle, Visit Florida, and Wyoming Office of Tourism.
Training seminar
Working closely with H.I.S. Co., Ltd., Japan’s second-largest travel agency, Brand USA conducted an in-house seminar for more than 60 travel agents, July 11-13, at the agency’s global headquarters in Tokyo. The following destination-marketing organizations participated: Illinois Office of Tourism, Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism, NYC & Company, San Diego Tourism Authority, San Francisco Travel, Travel Oregon, Travel Portland, Visit California, Visit Seattle, and State of Tourism of South Dakota and Wyoming.
Seminar with United
Brand USA and United Airlines jointly hosted an educational travel-trade seminar in Sendai, July 20, for 50 travel agents from the Tohoku region. (Sendai is the largest city in that region, which is northeast of Tokyo.) Guam Visitors Authority and suppliers from Guam also participated.
JATA
Brand USA has created a partnership in Japan with Japanese Association of Travel Agents (JATA) for a competition based on the Japanese travel trade building new USA itineraries. Both Brand USA and JATA will judge the entries and the winning agency would promote the actual itinerary and receive marketing support.
Additionally, the two have partnered up to create a series of overseas-travel seminars and workshops, that took place August 21-23. The events drew 82 agents from cities on the island of Hokkaido, including Kushiro, Obihiro, and Sapporo.
