Designing Indian Tourism Product for Japan

Dec 2017

Abhishek Ghosh | Praveen Kumar | Nipun Jain

<abhishekghsh8@gmail.com>

Agenda

1. Problem statement
2. Opportunity Testing/ Secondary Study
3. Primary Research
1. In-depth interviews
2. Identifying central themes and survey
3. Survey Results- Segments and Preferences
4. Product Design
5. Marketing Strategy
6. Operational Recommendations

Problem Statement - Japanese tourists in India

We wanted to test the hypothesis that there existed a possibility of increasing Japanese tourists to India. The study would consist of the following steps:

• Conducting a secondary study to analyse tourist volumes to India
• Testing the hypothesis that there existed a significant difference in tourist volume from japan than from comparable nations
• With insights from above, conduct primary study in Japan to understand factors that may be hindering/discouraging Japanese tourists to come to India
• Recommend solutions that could be utilised as business models to improve Japanese tourism business to India

Opportunity Testing/ Secondary Study

Japanese outbound Tourism trends

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• Outbound tourism from Japan in Aug-17: ~1.9 Mn, Cum. till Aug ’17: 11.8 Mn.
• India receives merely ~0.2 Mn tourists from Japan yearly
• Scope for improvement in tourism through awareness and targeted product design for different segments
• Market Size ~ $640 Mn

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Indian Tourism trends

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• Tourism in India accounts for 9.6% of the GDP & is ranked 3rd in the world
• Tourism is the 3rd largest foreign exchange earner for the country
• It provides employment to 9% of the population

Indian Ambassador to Japan , Mr. Sujan Chinoy also called for increase in tourism as a way of improving bilateral ties

Secondary study findings : Opportunity from Japan

• Japanese tourists inherently not averse to Asian destinations
• India is feasible option

• Avg. spend of ~80% tourists from Japan above $4000 (INR 2.5 lac)
• Avg. earning from other foreign tourists to India (‘15) ~$2620 (INR 1.7 lac)

Source: Study on Tourism in Overseas Market of Japan, Ministry of Tourism, GOI

India specific trends for Japanese tourists

• >70% tourists stay less than 2 weeks
• Opportunity for businesses to improve overall experience

• More traffic to “big ticket” places.
• Imperfect mapping with preferences and purpose of visit below:

Source: Study on Tourism in Overseas Market of Japan, Ministry of Tourism, GOI

In-depth Interviews (3 interviews)

1. Please tell us about yourself.
2. Please share your travelling experience and have you visited India?
3. What are the 3 good and bad things that come into your mind when you think about India?
4. What are your places of travel and types places of your interest?
5. What factors do consider important while planning for travelling? What factor contribute to your ideal vacation?
6. What do you think of India’s Image as a travel destination?

Primary Research - Interview insights

1. Basic Factor: Food, Guide, Planning, Duration
2. Vacation type: Culture, History, Scenic beauty
3. Purpose: Adventure, Relaxation, Recreation
4. India’s Image: Less Safe, Crowded, Bad infrastructure

Survey Questions

Primary Research - Segmentation via clustering

Primary Research - Survey- Insights

Segmentation- Based on purpose of Visit and Demographics

1. Adventure seekers/Explorers: 18 - 30 yrs, unmarried, Likes adventure, cultural and scenic trips
2. Working Class : 30 - 50 yrs, working professionals, Likes to relax, recreational trips
3. senior tourers: 50 and above, retired adults, Require high amount of planning, likes cultural and historical trips

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Overarching themes across segments

Marketing recommendations

Short Term Measures:

Incredible India advertisements in local language on non-satellite channels and popular print media

India tourism website in the local language

Feature Incredible India advertisements on social media.

A social media campaign of India Tourism highlighting the most liked aspects of tourism in the Japanese context.

Organize Bollywood nights and food festivals regularly so as to pique interest of Japanese travellers about India.

Training and providing certified Japanese speaking guides in various cities of India

Frequent interaction with tour operators – to remain connected.

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Long Term Measures:

Rather than sending brochures etc., fortnight updates though e-newsletters on what is happening NEW in India –event, launch, festival etc.

Design advertisements with celebrities of the target country/ host country to lend trust and credibility to the promotional advertisement.

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Using anime as a medium to promote tourism

• Destination Canada, the Canadian government’s official tourism division, recently released this short by Shinkai.
• It’s an intimate portrait of a Japanese couple finding love across the Great White North.
• Due to mainstream acceptance of anime in japanese media, the video campaign was a success.

Operational Recommendations

1. General infrastructure of all tourist touchpoints
2. Japanese language barrier: need for japanese guides
3. The option to have japanese basic food is essential
4. Safety and trust important in the tour, especially women safety
5. Proper scheduling of tour and avoidance of any surprises
6. Expectations of Indian unique experiences must be met with indigenous workshops/ events

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ありがとうございました�

Selective interview transcripts

Profile 1: Japanese Females in the age group 22-30 yrs

Name: JULIA�Sex: Female

Age: 23

Education: Studied abroad in US for 2 years

Traveled to: US, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Korea, Italy

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Want to visit India; but perception of dangerous place for girls and only meant for backpackers

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INDIA: Good~ Rice curry, High population and religion, caste system, smart

Bad~ Dangerous, not safe, Likes Hawaii as a safe vacation places

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WHY INDIA? Wants to visit places of natural beauty mountains,sea because these need one to go to Indian to experience it as compared to other aspect like culture, music, food which can be experienced in Japan. Hence, will focus on experience which need going to India and cannot be replicated in Japan.

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FOOD: Japanese people like Hawaii as they have access to Japanese food; want to try Indian food but want options open

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GUIDE : Trained guide who speaks Japanese and a planned tour, Indian is a long distance away and people feel anxious if unplanned events happen, need all planned and packed

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SCHEDULING: Planning is important for us, we are allocation a lot of time to the trip and want everything on time, packed schedule to cover all.

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IDEA of Perfect Vacation: Relaxing (japanese work life pretty stressful, need a break); student can spend a month for it, businessman can do maximum one week,

Profile 2: Japanese Males in the age group 30-50 yrs

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Name: Shin

Age: 35 yrs

• Travelling profile: Visited more than 10 countries as tourist (US, New Zealand, Hong king, Vietnam, Thailand, Spain, Italy, France, England
• Perception of travel purpose of the japanese: Culture and history (not much focus on religion)
• Thought on availability of Japanese Food: Not very important, Japanese travellers generally enjoy and want to try food outside, more important for older generation
• Tolerance for uncertainty: Even Tourists build in buffers, preferable but not deal-breaking to be precise
• India highlights: yoga, ganga, ganja(marijuana), taj mahal, mumbai, food, many people, Caste system
• Ignorance of the “experiences” india offers
• Biggest concerns : Safety (negative publicity), crime
• Interest in traditional, cultural aspects, also in big ticket famous tourist places
• Japanese language is absolutely helpful

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Profile 3: Japanese Males in the age group 50 and above yrs

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Name: Aige

Ager: 52 yrs

Japanese/Manager of hostel/45 years/ travel- China

Work- Advertising tokyo, 15 year/ travel- Some european countries, Indonesia

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Indian perspective- Buddhism, hot, multiple terrain, curry(Food)

Bad things- Chaos, Lot of people, bad infra, crimes

Places of interest- Old architecture, temples, religion, even exploring Hindu religion

Not interested in food,

Ideal vacation- tour guided should have history/religion background/Japanese spoken,

Types of people who would go India: Students, elderly(above 60), after 10 years elderly people will retire. Students are not much in Japan. And elderly would want to go to religious places, myths, etc.

Japanese food requirement- After a week or two people would want to have a japanese food. But their food is not very complex. Simple food is enough. Japanese Curry would be good.

Japan- the economy is not so good, young people are depressed/stressed, so in vacation these people don’t want adventure, they want to spend relax. Thus retired people are good vacationers left who want to explore these things. A secured package, like interpreter, guide, security etc.

Yoga and health- target women, men are conservative but women are open. To women yoga, healthy food, natural beauty products would be good target. Tour package like that for young and elderly women.

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