“Ski is a big opportunity for Japan,” said Airi Motokura, Executive Director of Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), who spoke to TTG at WTM London.

The JNTO will pitch its ski offering to the UK’s 1.8 million active skiers, with the destination having exhibited at the London Ski Show for the past two years.

“A lot of them already know about the quality of our snow, which is known for its powdery texture, but they don’t know the logistics after landing,” Motokura said.

One key focus for the JNTO will be educating UK visitors on how to access resorts like Hokkaido and Hakuba, and setting out how visitors can combine a skip trip with a week of sightseeing. 

It’s also working with airlines to offer discount tickets and free stopovers for international visitors.

Venturing further and Korea collab

Kyushu is another destination Japan’s tourism board is keen to highlight. Situated just an hour from Hiroshima via the Shinkansen (bullet train), the volcanic island is known for its hiking, hot springs and onsens.

Motokura said Chubu in central Japan, around a three-hour bullet train from Tokyo, was another destination “eager to attract the UK market”. The region is home to Gifu, a historic prefecture with deep samurai culture.

Motokura also addressed, and downplayed, allegations of "disrespectful" behaviour by western tourists while they're in Japan. “It’s not that they’re being disrespectful, they just don't know,” she said.

“That's why this year we published etiquette on how to be respectful: how to bathe in an onsen, how to be respectful on the train, all those things. It's about informing them.”

Finally, Motokura revealed Japan is collaborating with Korea to jointly promote the two neighbouring destinations. “We invited four tour operators this October to build joint brand new tour packages,” Motokura said.

“We took them to both Korea and Japan, spending around two weeks in total.”