Japanese Government has lifted Ban on Individual Travel Visa on July 1.
It is the Prologue to Japan's Global Competition in international tourism.
Chinese are able to travel in Japan in individuals at last. Under the present economic recession, Chinese outbound tourism market draw international attention, and heated competition over Chinese tourists among tourist destinations around the world has already begun. We will take a look at the Chinese outbound tourism market in overview and at the potential it possesses.

On July 1, Japanese embassy and consulates in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou started to accept applications for individual travel visa for Chinese. On July 8, the first visitors with this visa arrived in Japan, welcomed by "Hello Kitty", a goodwill ambassador for Visit Japan Campaign, in a grand ceremony taking place at Narita Airport.
On the same day, "Inbound Workshop" was jointly held by Japan Association of Travel Agents and Japan Tourism Marketing Co. Mr. Hiroshi Uyama, International Promotion Department, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) delivered a lecture on "Individual Travel Visa and Foresight for Chinese Market". More than 50 attendants of the workshop showed keen interest and anticipation for the effect this new visa may bring.

The number of international tourists visiting Japan during this January to June was 3.1 million, a 28.6% decrease from the same period of last year, affected by factors such as worldwide economic depression, high value of yen and spreading Swine flu. However, numbers of visitors from China was 478,000, with a slight fall from the same period of last year, even under such negative circumstances. (Fig. 1)
Monthly arrival of visitors from China was fewer than the same months of last year in February, May and June. Reason for the decrease in February was because Chinese New Year holidays did not fall on in February this year, and the reasons for slow traffic in May and June are: restriction on official travels, cancellation or postponing of group and school tours due to the flu in Japan. (Fig. 2)

According to the JETRO World Business News released on July 17 (from Beijing), economy is beginning to recover throughout China, with investment and consumption turning upward. Also, from the macro-economic analysis of this April to June, the People's Bank of China estimated that the GDP for the period will increase by 7.9% over the same period of last year, as well as 14.9% (seasonally adjusted annual rate) increase over the January-March period of this year (The Nikkei, July 29, 2009). Chinese government is planning to spend 4 trillion Chinese yuan on economic measures by 2010, and this policy is having a positive effect on the wealthy class. Their motivations for outbound travel have not calmed down (JNTO). These are possibly the reasons for the fact that the number of Chinese visitors does not decrease as much as visitors from other source markets.
UNWTO foresees that the Chinese outbound travelers, which marked 35 million in 2006, will reach 100 million by 2020. It will be the 4th largest market in the world and will keep growing even with faster pace.（"The Chinese Outbound Travel Market with Special Insight into the Image of Europe as a Destination", UNWTO 2008）

The Government of Japan expects 20 million visitors from various parts of the world in 2020 including 6 million from China. This is only about 6% of the total of 100 million Chinese outbound travelers which UNWTO estimates. On the other hand, 3.45 million Japanese visited China in 2008, which accounted for 20% of 16 million Japanese outbound market. Japan should expect more Chinese travelers in order to enhance mutual exchanges in the tourism markets of the two countries.

"How large would the Chinese outbound market expand?" This is a question frequently asked lately. Some predict that more wealthy will travel abroad with the new individual travel visa, while the others claim such view is too optimistic. However, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." (Alan Kay, American Computer Scientist) Marketing consists of creation of customers and market. It is most important to best adopt various fields of tourism business to the changing market environment, such as expanding inbound market and the Chinese individual travel visa. Each sectors involved in tourism products and services should compete with others and upgrade services targeted at the Chinese visitors and it will bring a competitive strength to Japan, a 'tourism-oriented country'.
The challenge has already started. Yodobashi Camera, for instance, exhibited in a tourism expo held in Beijing this June and appealed that they have Chinese staff in service, making efforts to further satisfy Chinese customers. Also, "japan-guide.com", the most popular English website providing information on Japan, has intensified pages written in simplified Chinese characters. Especially enhanced shopping pages feature detailed information on shops in Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ginza, areas popular among Chinese. Major merchandises from each shop can be seen in pictures and discount coupons and such can be downloaded.
In addition, the worldwide competition over Chinese travelers has already started.
Destinations for the Chinese outbound travel market spreads over 130 countries, and 20 of those counties can be traveled in individuals. Thailand, for example, issues 3 months visa without any charge and thus Chinese travelers are benefited to save 230 yuan application fee. Also, Taiwan lowered minimum number for the Chinese tourist groups to 10 persons from 15 persons, and extended the maximum duration of visit to 15 days from 10 days. By moderating those regulations, it succeeded to bring 250 thousand Chinese during this January to June which is about 8 times the number of the Chinese visitors for the same period of last year and also coming close to 320 thousand Japanese visitors. (Jiji.com, July 13)

Worldwide exchange of traveling population today is clearly different from that of ten year ago. Japanese government lifting ban on individual travel visa for Chinese is a small part of the expansion of tourist traffic that is already taking place worldwide. We will be left behind this global trend if we only anticipate and wait for the visitors to come. First, we need to analyze the emerging source markets and the needs of the travelers there. And also, the existing travel agencies need to change their traditional business as if they were new players in the market and generated new businesses. They are questioned if they are willing to enter this new global tourism market for their future success.