Japan gears up to welcome foreign tourists with improved services

Kyoto, one of the most historic cities in Japan, is witnessing a rise in foreign tourist inflow.

According to Japanese Tourism Agency's reports, the number of foreign tourists to Japan increased two-fold in a decade and got over 13 million people for the first time.

To provide better services to the tourists, JCB - the Japanese credit card company recently opened "JCB PLAZA Kyoto", a service center for foreign card members.

JCB has more than 60 plazas around the world. It offers many services, including reservations and sightseeing information in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Members can enjoy free use of computer, free mobile recharging and free WiFi. Guidebooks and information magazines are also available.

"JCB is the first and only international credit card company in Japan. So, we want to offer many good services like JCB plaza based on "Omotenashi" (Japanese hospitality). And, we are going to have 2020 Olympic here in Japan. We will be welcoming more foreign tourists. We want to create and offer more services with more hospitality," said Jiro Sugiyama, Executive vice president, brand marketing department, JCB Co., Ltd.

JCB also offers smart phone App of Japanese travel guide, exclusive discount on bus tour of Tokyo and much more.

With pride in Japanese hospitality, JCB keeps improving their services.

However, the logistics companies are also gearing up to provide better services to foreign tourists.

There is a competition of hospitality held by Yamato Transport Co., Ltd., one of the biggest door-to-door delivery service companies in Japan.

Fourteen operators who won the competition in each area participated in a nationwide competition in Tokyo.

Experts from hospitality sector judged the participants on personal appearance, how to talk to customers, whether the explanation of product and services is easy-to-understand and so on.

The winner was declared from Miyagi prefecture, north east of Japan. The judge said her behavior was polite and communication skills were especially great.

"I think the reason for the victory was that I concentrated on using the expression which I leaned and am using on a daily service (not using special words for this competition). For example, I realized that it's difficult for aged people to understand electronic payment by card so I use the word "wallet" to explain them on a daily service. Our company is big so it's rare opportunity that each employee is cheered, receives praise and gets a prize. So this kind of competition is good motivation," said the winning candidate.

The policy of Yamato is to deliver satisfaction to the customers by offering high quality service with warmth.

The company has about 4,000 directly-managed stores and 14,000 operators working with the hospitality.