## 4 Driving a Holiday Reform

The Japan Tourism Agency is accelerating the holiday taking mood in a bid to create travel demand. During FY2012, the “Create Family Time Project” was implemented at 120 schools in 15 regions nationwide (when compared with 98 schools in 10 regions during FY2011). The community-based project encourages corporate employees to take paid holidays and also schedules school holiday periods to allow the employees and their children to enjoy coordinated holidays together.

Further, the “Positive Off” movement has been promoted to encourage employees to take a positive stance towards taking day-offs to enjoy outing, travel, etc., on vacation. This movement is aimed at conditioning a workplace environment to facilitate holiday taking and help boost the economy through outing, travel, etc. on vacation, thereby building a work-life balance or a holiday-enjoying lifestyle. It is advocated and driven jointly with the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

## 5 Reinforcing the Tourist Industry and Developing Human Resources Who Help Promote Tourism

## (1) Reinforcing the tourist industry

To realize a tourism nation and let tourism provide a new impetus to Japan’s economic growth, reinforcing the tourist industry would be essential. To this end, specific measures are being explored to develop the nation’s tourist industry at a higher level of refinement and win high evaluations from the customers and stakeholders at home and abroad, thereby consolidating a branded image of the nation’s tourist industry for further growth.

## (2) Developing human resources who help promote tourism

## ① Promoting a policy of collaboration among the government, industry and academia

Activities aimed at developing managerial human resources who will support the tourist industry have been promoted with collaboration among the government, industry and academia. In addition, the Internship Model project has been implemented to secure excellent human resources to work for the tourist industry while arousing public interest in the industry, encouraging employment in the industry and improving their basic capabilities as members of society.

## ② Supporting approaches to developing human resources working on tourism area creation

To accelerate approaches to developing human resources to work on the voluntary, independent creation of regional tourism areas, measures and techniques for human resources development tailored to specific regional conditions have been worked out, tried, escalated and deployed nationwide.

## ③ Promoting tourism nation education

Tourism nation education has been promoted to nourish a “traveling mind” within children to let them grow to support future regional development.

## 6 Keeping Sightseeing Tours Safer

In the wake of an express bus accident that occurred on the Kanetsu Expressway in April 2012, intensive on-site inspections poured into the travel agencies that operate express buses, and emergency measures were taken, including a review of the Travel Agency Act system.

With the subsequent occurrence of a climbing tour accident that occurred in the vicinity of the Great Wall of China in November of the same year, the safety measures for climbing tours were reviewed and on-site inspections were toughened.