Transportation system in Tokyo

Provides insight into global issues which challenge hotel and tourism development in the 21s t century. Adopts a student-focused strategy aimed at students developing an understanding of the contemporary trends by focusing on areas/issues of tourism supply and demand.

Tokyo city of Japan offers immensely diversified tourist attractions. The place covers various aspects of tourism from recreational to educational to historical places that can easily satisfy the needs of the tourists who has different visions. This section of this review provides a brief idea of the transportation of Tokyo city and how to develop the transportation in Tokyo. Tokyo metropolis is currently one of the most populous cities throughout the world and it is located in the national capital region of Japan, where nearly 32 millions of people reside. As opined by Chew and Jahari (2014) the issues regarding transportation are thus becoming a matter of concern day by day in Tokyo city. In Japan there are railways, subway and buses that are useful for the tourists and the general population of the city. For touring inside the city only Shinkansen and JR railway were used and thus in this section of this review more about these two way of transportation will be majorly discussed. To be precise, the railway system of Japan is much more complicated than the railway system of another major city Hong Kong.  In Japan there are two rail lines in the same platform making things a bit easier for the passengers. On the other hand the signs of the railway department are all in Japanese language making it difficult for the international tourists to understand. They could have used international languages like English in some of the signs in road or in railways. As stated by Charlesworth (2017) the station signs of Japanese railways are not digital and no announcements are made before approaching the rail stations.  To improve the situation, the government of Japan should make a master plan for developing the railway system making it easier for the residents as well as the international or domestic tourists.

It was also seen during the visit in Tokyo that the traffic congestion there is pathetic as it delays the time consumed to travel and it effectively reduces the efficiency as a mode of transportation in Tokyo. As opined by Hall and Page (2016), the direct cost for traffic congestion faced by a driver in Japan is somewhat 8 US dollars and this significantly affects the tourism of the city and the country. In this context it is worth mentioning that indirect costing of traffic congestion is even dangerous as it generates heavy air pollution and the supply chains of various business organizations gets affected and that indirectly affects the tourism industry too. Apart from that due to traffic congestion, the braking, idle motor and accelerating results higher level of fuel emission that increases the level of pollution.   These issues need to be sorted out in order to sustain the growth of tourism industry in Japan.

Issues affecting traffic congestion

It is seen that the number of individuals who visit Japan are not going to reduce in any ways due to the diversity of tourism the country, especially Tokyo city offers. The tourism of Japan, specially the tourism of Tokyo city possesses various qualities like variety o tourist attractions, stress on educational and cultural tourist spots and above all the combination of everyday life and tourism intrigues international tourists to visit the place. Currently population has become a major issue in Tokyo and due to rapid increase in the population of Tokyo, the city ahs to undergone a rapid expansion in the twentieth century. Within the time span of 1920 to 2007, the population of Tokyo grew from 7 million to 35 million and this statistics is somewhat concerning for the government of Japan (Erfurt-Cooper 2014).

Growth of population in Tokyo over time

Source: (Charlesworth 2017)

In the present situation, the government of Tokyo wants to proceed with an effective urban development plan that can help to understand the unique characteristics of the local area. The government of Japan is trying to increase the quality of the housing by utilizing the vitality of the private sector. It is also seen that the government intends to increase the green zone in the proper city to reduce the load of the environment and it would also help to create a beautiful cityscape. As opined by Chew and Jahari (2014), if the government body encourages a few housing programs it can effectively improve the market of the housing and it would help the citizens to achieve a better living conditions. The government of Japan needs to deploy some technological boosts in the housing industry so that they can accommodate more individuals in small areas as being an Island country, Japan struggles with space related issues and these issues needs to be resolved immediately. The government of Japan is taking initiatives to boost the technological aspects of the housing industry so that they can accommodate more people in a small place in a cheaper price. This would potentially help the government to boost the tourism sector and can generate huge revenue from that.  These things can effectively increase the prospects of tourism industry of the country, as when the international tourists experience that the living condition in the city is good, they will surly refer someone to visit the city and that can effectively help to boost the tourism industry of Japan.

Tourist attractions in Tokyo

To briefly describe the tourist attractions in Tokyo, the individuals who are more inclined towards the traditional culture and the customs of the place can go to historical places like shrines and temples, the imperial palace; on the other hand, individuals with kids can visit sites like Disneyland, universal studio and many more. As opined by Erfurt-Cooper (2014), the nature lovers can visit the natural museum of nature and science, Ueno Park and zoo and many more. Thus it can be said that these are the basic reason behind the immense revenue the government of Japan generate each year from the tourism. As stated by Charlesworth (2017), Japan is a country that is exposed to numerous natural disasters like earthquakes to tsunami and many more, but that could not reduce the attraction of the cities of the country to the international tourists. A recent study showed that in the year of 2016, 24 millions of international tourists visited Tokyo city and that too after the devastating situations after tsunami, earthquakes and Fukushima Daiichi disaster (Erfurt-Cooper 2014). The government of Japan has set an example by requesting elder citizens to take part actively in the tourism industry and the government provides developmental courses to the volunteers of tourism sector so that they can become well equipped with the relevant knowledge regarding the tourism of the country. In this context, it should also be mentioned that the government of Japan, to sustain the growth of the tourism industry of Japan, are planning to get engaged in a few significant initiatives (Charlesworth 2017). Nowadays the government of Japan is all set to face the challenges of the natural disasters as they have almost established a large scale international disaster insurance system that covers the region of Asia-Pacific nations that are generally hit by typhoons, earthquakes and many more natural disasters. As stated by Chew and Jahari (2014), Japan has invented various disaster-prevention technologies and wants to share the technologies with those neighboring countries. In this regard it should be worthwhile mentioning that if Japan effectively prevents the effects of the natural disasters it would definitely improve the tourism of the beautiful country.

References

Charlesworth, S., 2017. Cultural Tourism in Japan: A Critical Analysis of Tourists Perceptions of Marketing and Promotional Material for Japanese Cultural Tourism (Doctoral dissertation, Cardiff Metropolitan University).

Chew, E.Y.T. and Jahari, S.A., 2014. Destination image as a mediator between perceived risks and revisit intention: A case of post-disaster Japan. Tourism Management, 40, pp.382-393.

Erfurt-Cooper, P., 2014. Wellness Tourism: a perspective from Japan. Routledge.

Fukushige, Y. and Maeda, T., 2017. A Case study on medical tourism in Japan using hot-springs resources: From the perspectives of regional revitalization and complementary and alternative medicine. ScientificCommittee, p.172.

Hall, C.M. and Page, S.J. eds., 2016. The Routledge handbook of tourism in Asia. Taylor & Francis.

Hill, C.M., 2014. Herding Monkeys to Paradise: How Macaque Troops are Managed for Tourism in Japan.

Liu, X., Yuan, Y., Mayila, A., Shi, W. and Kondoh, T., 2017. A STUDY ON THE CULTURAL TOURISM OF THE CHINESE TOURISTS IN JAPAN. International Journal of Tourism & Hospitality Reviews, 4(2), pp.53-58.

Ranaweerage, E., Ranjeewa, A.D. and Sugimoto, K., 2015. Tourism-induced disturbance of wildlife in protected areas: A case study of free ranging elephants in Sri Lanka. Global Ecology and Conservation, 4, pp.625-631.

Seaton, P. and Yamamura, T., 2015, January. Japanese popular culture and contents tourism–introduction. In Japan forum (Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 1-11). Routledge.

Shimizu, T., Okano, Y., Kurata, Y. and Naoi, T., 2016. An Analysis of Effects of Boredom on Revisit Intention–A Case in Japanese Popular Tourism Destinations.