Special Feature

Nankai Electric Railway Services Targeting
Inbound Visitors
Osamu Mochizuki

Company History

services to Kyoto, Nara, Kobe, and other parts of the Kansai(west Japan) region (Fig. 1).

Nankai Electric Railway started operations in 1885 as

Strategy for Handling Inbound Visitors

Japan’s first true private-sector line. Today, it has 154.8
km of track in southern Osaka Prefecture spreading fromNamba and reaching to northern Wakayama Prefecture

Since KIX opened, Nankai’s airport access services haveand carries 233 million passengers a year (FY2015). Thebeen used mainly by Kansai residents when travelling

operating profit of the 82 transport, real estate, logistics,abroad. Many inbound visitors are from North America andand other companies in the Nankai group is ¥219 billion

Europe, and their use of the JR West Kansai Airport Line

(FY2015). When Kansai International Airport (KIX) opened

running parallel to Nankai’s Airport Line has stood out forin 1994, the group started direct access from the airport totravel to Kyoto or other places across Japan. However, theNamba using the 42.8-km Airport Line, as well as airport bus

more recent dramatic increase in inbound visitors from AsiaFigure 1 Major Nankai Electric Railway Routes

SHIN-OSAKAOSAKA / UMEDA
About 8min

KOBE

KAWARAMACHI
About 60min

HANKYU KYOTO LINE

HANSHIN LINEKYOBASHI

DEMACHIYANAGI
About 65min

KEIHAN LINE
KOBE-SANNOMIYA
About 45min

UNIVERSAL-CITY
About 19min

YODOYABASHINISHIKUJYOMIDOSUJILINESHINSAIBASHI
About 1min

JR OSAKAKANJYO LINE

NAMBA
rapi:t 38min / Express 44min

KYOTO

KINTETSU LINE
NARA
About 39min

SHIN-IMAMIYATENGACHAYAKANSAI-AIRPORTKOYA LINE

NANKAI LINEKISHIWADARINKU-TOWN
OZAKI

WAKAYAMASHI
Ltd.Exp. 59min

OSAKA

SAKAIHIGASHISAKAIAIR PORTLINETENNOJI
About 7min

NAKAMOZUIZUMI-CHUO

KONGO
KAWACHINAGANOIZUMISANO

WAKAYAMAKOJapan Railway & Transport Review No. 69 • Mar 2017

RINKANDEN-ENTOSHIHASHIMOTO
Ltd.Exp. 46min
Express 51min

MISAKIKOENWAKAYAMA38

GOKURAKUBASHIKOYASAN
Ltd.Exp. 90min
Express 120min

NARA

Special Feature

has changed the situation; the number has increased across‘shopping/post-travel’ categories, and increase businessJapan, and KIX has successfully attracted more services,

opportunities in coordination with stakeholders at each stage.

such as 18 low-cost carriers (LCCs, including PeachIncreasing potential of Minami area and making it part ofmain travel route near OsakaAviation) using the airport for 371 flights a week—the largest
number of LCC services in Japan.
Against this background, Nankai is transitioning its

This strategy attracts more visitors to Namba (Minami

airport access services to handle inbound visitors. A 2015area), Osaka’s largest sightseeing area and Nankai’s base,survey showed that inbound visitors made up about 40% ofand makes excursions around Osaka City from Namba thepassengers (excluding airport employees) using Nankai’stravel standard.

Kansai Airport station, with the ratio increasing further this30s enjoying personal travel. Another survey showed that

Securing earnings by increasing value of Kansai tourism
nodes and terminals

6 million inbound visitors visited Namba—Nankai’s base—

The idea is to generate earnings by using the focus oftranslating to a third of all inbound visitors nationwide.

railway networks at Namba for travel to Kyoto, Nara, andyear. The largest majority are Asian women in their 20s andThis trend had been forecast by Nankai and theKobe, and promote the combined terminal made up ofcompany proposed the following strategies (Fig. 2).

Nankai’s Namba Station, department stores, shopping
centres, hotels, and offices to visitors.

Multi-dimensional enhancement of efforts in each stageof travel itineraries

Utilizing group resources and revitalizing trackside areas

The concept is to separate travel into ‘pre-travel/flight/

The concept is to attract inbound repeat visitors to cities

access/lodging/sightseeing’, ‘experiencing/eating’, andalong the lines and areas where Nankai’s resources areFigure 2 Inbound Strategy Overview

Cooperation with stakeholders to foster systematic measures.

at ever

Analysis/Assessment
Planning/Creating/AdvertisingMarket research

Before trip

Goal setting

Access Transportation

Flight/Main transportation

Solution/Supportystage

Assessment after trip

nceShopping/Eatingcha

Experiencing

essSightseeing

sinHotelBu

Reiind nforc
epe ingndent syste
Overseas sales
me matasu ic aPromotionndreEnhancing reception environment
Raising attractiveness of terminal,
railway line area
New service (alliance)

39

Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 69 • Mar 2017

Entrance to Nankai’s Namba Station (Nankai Electric Railway)

Nankai started Airport Line service at opening of KIX in 1994 (Nankai Electric Railway)

Building Infrastructure Supporting
Inbound Visitors

concentrated, such as the Mt Koya and Nanki (Wakayamaand Mie prefectures) areas, and help revitalize tourism inareas suffering from declining populations.

Building infrastructure to support inbound visitors is aprerequisite for implementing this strategy.

Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 69 • Mar 201740

Special FeatureSigns at Namba Station in four different languages (Nankai Electric Railway)

Multilingual guidance at Namba Station (Nankai Electric Railway)

Systematic physical measures include changing signs tospace on trains, and adding ticket counters to the crowded

pictograms in four languages (Japanese, English, Chinese

Kansai International Airport and Namba stations.

(simplified), and Korean), enumerating station names

In terms of operational measures, more airport accesswith location codes, providing multilingual guidance andservices have been added; six limited express and express

announcements at stations and on trains, providing luggage

trains are run each hour during daytime, and early morning

41

Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 69 • Mar 2017Namba Information Center at Namba Station (Nankai Electric Railway)

Osaka Free Wi-Fi logo
 (OSAKA CONVENTION & TOURISM BUREAU)

Prayer room at Namba Terminal (Nankai Electric Railway)

and late night train services were started with LCCs in mind.

duties of Muslim visitors, and the terminal also has large

As well as using cash, fares can be paid using IC cards andlockers and luggage storage so visitors can go sightseeing

credit cards, including China UnionPay.

unhindered; duty-free counters in the terminal help alleviate

Information booths have been set-up at three locations

complex duty-free procedures handled by individual shops.

including Kansai Airport Station and the Osaka Convention

Distribution of Information in Country ofDeparture& Tourism Bureau information center (run by Nankai) in theNamba terminal.
Rather than operate its own wi-fi network, Nankai joined
the Osaka Free Wi-Fi service provided by the OsakaNankai provides substantial information outside throughConvention & Tourism Bureau to enable wi-fi connections

mediums such as travel exhibitions and media. However,across Osaka Prefecture.

awareness of Nankai services is poor partly because private

A prayer room at Namba terminal meets the religious

Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 69 • Mar 2017

railways are unusual in other countries. And while many42

Special Feature

How to Enjoy Osaka website home page (Nankai Electric Railway)

visitors know about Osaka and Kyoto,
they know little about the Kansai region oreven the relationship of Kyoto, Osaka, andKobe to each other. In this light, Nankai’s‘How to Enjoy Osaka’ website mostly
provides information about the area withless information on the company image.
At travel exhibitions, Nankai exhibits jointlywith the Surutto K ANSAI association
made up of local governments and private
railways, emphasizing Namba as a nodefor Kansai tourism as expressed in theaforementioned strategy.

Ticket Sales
Sales of discount tickets for the KIX
access Airport Line are an ef fective
measure for attracting visitors to Namba.
However, purchase at counters soon after
arriving in Japan causes issues in termsof language, currency, and time, and justselling cheap ticket has little benefit toNankai, so Nankai emphasizes overseas
sales of discount tickets and while onboard arriving flights. Special vouchers
are sold wholesale to overseas travel
agencies and users can purchase tickets

Example of voucher output from Internet 43(Nankai Electric Railway)

Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 69 • Mar 2017

Kansai Railway Network Map in various languages (Nankai Electric Railway)

online at the ‘How to Enjoy Osaka’ site. Flight attendants ofoperators in the same urban area is hard for overseas

Peach Aviation and other LCCs sell Nankai tickets on-board,

visitors to understand. Consequently, major companies anda service that passengers rate favourably. Furthermore,agencies cooperate to produce the Kansai Railway Network

the KANSAI THRU PASS produced by Surutto KANSAI,

Map that can be downloaded from their websites.

KANSAI ONE PASS joint IC card for inbound visitors usable

Plans that allow exploring on foot in the surrounding areawith different operators, and other products are sold on

instead of just a single facility are important for shopping,consignment to promote travel via Namba throughout theand eating out, both activities that rank as high as tourism.

Kansai area.

Nankai coordinates with surrounding businesses, shopping
districts, and of course, the companys’ own Namba terminal,

Promotion of Community-based Tourism

to promote stops by group tours at these locations, provide

The idea of community-based tourism is to stimulate theilluminations, seasonal sales, gourmet events, etc.) for

attractiveness of different locations, a task that is difficult foroverseas visitors.

information, give special benefits, and hold events (streetone company. Moreover, individual sightseeing spots areMoreover, Namba functions as a base for community-transit points in visitors’ overall trips, and itineraries cannot

based tours using various means, such as opening thebe created with information only on specific locations.

Namba terminal parking lot to open-top buses running in aConsequently, excursion routes are being developed

loop around Osaka City, and tour buses that meet certain

in coordination with stakeholders, such as regionalconditions.

governments, airports, other transport modes, shopping

Future Issues

districts, and land tour operators.
In doing so, maps produced by local governments
tend to be limited to specific areas for funding reasons.

As described, Nankai makes various efforts to meet theWhile railway operators can print maps covering a wide

needs of inbound visitors. The aim is to coordinate witharea, Japan’s railway network with many lines of different

stakeholders and provide seamless service throughout travel

Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 69 • Mar 201744

Special Feature

Illuminations in NAMBA PARKS, a facility located next to Namba terminal (Nankai Electric Railway)

itineraries. As the number of visitors to Japan increases,inability to overcome cost issues. Looking back, luggage

parties who were unenthusiastic at the start of efforts have

handling is far from easy. These issues and other factors

realized that these efforts concern them. However, someprove that measures to please incoming visitors need to beissues have become apparent.

worked out while working in coordination with concerned

For example, shop business hours in the Namba terminal

stakeholders.

are shorter than the railway operating hours. Although
Japanese residents are unconcerned about shops being
closed in the early morning and late at night, closed shops
are an inconvenience for inbound visitors exploring at thesetimes. Lengthening business hours has many issues besides
securing staff, such as air-conditioning operation hours, sothese issues must be given some consideration.
Another worry for visitors is what to do with luggage
while shopping or enjoying other activities. In addition
to increasing luggage storage, ideally luggage could besent directly to the hotel from KIX to allow visitors to move
unencumbered from the day they arrive in Japan. With
independent visitors expected to increase even further,demand for luggage handling will probably increase,making promotion of so-called ‘hands-free sightseeing’ animportant issue.
Nankai actually operated a luggage check-in counter

Osamu Mochizuki

jointly with airlines at Namba terminal for a few years, but

Mr Mochizuki is Corporate Officer and Chief Manager of Inbound
Promotion Department at Nankai Electric Railway

the service was discontinued due to low demand and45Japan Railway & Transport Review No. 69 • Mar 2017