Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
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Maritime Bureau
(Reference)
Cruise-related policies and measures

March 22, 2005
<District Cruise Promotion Association>

  District cruise promotion Association have already been established and are active in five regions: Hokkaido, Kansai, Chugoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Their objective is to promote cruise tourism in their region. The members of these associations consist of businesses that operate cruise ships, port-related entities, tourism-related entities, and related government agencies. These members discuss policies intended to draw attention to cruise ships and attract tourists via cruise promotion. In order to go one step further in dealing with efforts to draw attention to cruise ships and attract tourists via cruise promotion, which hitherto have been separate efforts, they have decided their goal is to promote cruises by dealing with issues through cooperation and partnerships between stakeholders and reinforcing partnerships in all business areas.

<Cruise Advisor System>

  The Cruise Advisor System was set up in March 2003 by cooperation among three cruise related associations - Japan Oceangoing Passenger Ship Association, Japan Association of Travel Agents, and Japan Sea Travel Association. The System already has certified 505 cruise consultants. Having undergone six training sessions and examinations for persons engaged in sales of cruise products, they have become specialists with expert knowledge of cruises. Cruise advisors (cruise consultants and cruise masters) can provide consultations about cruises and respond adeptly to inquiries. In addition, they can present the attractions of cruises from a wide variety of angles through sales of cruise products. The activities of cruise advisors are expected to further stimulate cruises in Japan.

<Visit Japan Campaign Cruise Project>

  Led by the USA, five countries/regions are treated as priority markets, with the goal of pushing the number of foreign visitors to Japan to the 8-million-level by 2007, and the Visit Japan Campaign (VJC), a joint government-private sector effort, has been launched, aimed at those markets.
  As part of this effort, the VJC US Subcommittee has decided to take on the project of attracting cruise ships departing from the US to visit Japan as one of its projects during the current fiscal year, following up on FY 2003. A project team consisting of government and private-sector representatives with specialized knowledge of cruises has been assembled to look into ways of optimizing the benefits of the project. After securing the approval of the US Subcommittee, initiatives proposed by the project team will be carried out as VJC projects. Following up on the previous fiscal year's efforts, this project set up a Japan booth at the Cruise Convention, which was held in Miami March 14-17, 2005, to draw the attention of cruise lines from throughout America to visit Japan cruises.
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