Linking Tourism and Food: Valuable Lessons from Hokkaido (Japan)

(Baonghean) -Dinh Thi Le Thanh

(Member of Provincial Party Committee - Vice Chairman of Provincial People's Committee)

On October 29-30, 2014, in Sapporo City, Hokkaido Province (Japan), JICA (Japan) organized a forum on tourism and food. At the forum, the issue of linking tourism with food was discussed and mentioned from many perspectives, such as: Tourism and food; Japanese cuisine from the perspective of foreigners; Food, sightseeing and food safety; Information technology in agriculture; The power of visual communication... The information and lessons learned from this forum are extremely useful, especially for Nghe An, a locality with many similarities to Hokkaido...

A corner of central Sapporo City (Hokkaido).

Hokkaido is an island with an area of ​​83,456.87 km2, accounting for 22% of the area, but only 4.3% of the population of Japan. Hokkaido's population is equivalent to that of Nordic countries such as Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway... but in terms of economic scale, it is smaller. Before 1868, Japan was ruled by Samurai, called the Edo era. After that, there was a civil war between the conservatives and the reformists. By 1868, the reformists won and began the Meiji Government. Hokkaido's population at that time was about 50,000 people. To develop Hokkaido into a national interest, the Hokkaido Colonization Committee carried out the following activities: Developing transport infrastructure (road system); exploiting coal mines and building a railway system; forming state-owned enterprises to produce alcohol, beer, canned food, milk...

Comrade Dinh Thi Le Thanh attended the Tourism and Food Forum in Sapporo (Hokkaido).

In the period after World War II (1945), Japan faced three major problems: The return of demobilized soldiers from overseas caused a high unemployment rate; Heavy damage to industry caused food shortages; The need to rebuild the country after the war increased the demand for new raw materials and energy sources. In the face of the country's general difficulties, policies and strategies for comprehensive development of Hokkaido were determined to focus on five areas, including: Improving poor land areas; Increasing food supplies; Encouraging tourism; Environment and energy; Forming a dynamic local society.

Some tourist attractions in Hokkaido.

Accurate assessments of the local situation and potential, along with the right and dynamic development orientation and strategy, have turned Hokkaido into a beautiful island with strong appeal to tourists thanks to its attractive destinations that tourists cannot miss on their journey to experience tourism in the Land of the Rising Sun, such as Daisetsuzan, Onuma Park, Lake Toya, Noboribetsu... Coming to Hokkaido, tourists are also attracted by the snow, the hills and the vast fields of colorful flowers; enjoy fresh food, with many typical fresh specialties from the sea, from fruit gardens, especially glasses of clean fresh milk and Ramen noodles...

Some tourist attractions in Hokkaido.

The miraculous and extremely convincing transformation of Hokkaido shows that, in the process of construction and development, each land and each locality has its own difficulties and obstacles, but at the same time, it is also full of potential and advantages if we know how to perceive and exploit them. The problem is to have a dynamic mindset and a determined and persistent will in the implementation process. Hokkaido is the most vivid and convincing proof and will also bring extremely valuable lessons, especially practical for Nghe An, a locality with many similarities in the socio-economic development roadmap towards linking tourism and food.

The first is the lesson of the connection between Food and Tourism contributing to economic development. Tourism, agriculture, forestry and fisheries are the main growth-promoting and strategic sectors for Hokkaido. These are the potentials for this locality to develop the Food and Tourism industry more than other prefectures in Japan, at the same time, creating a "Hokkaido brand" from a marketing perspective, and in the Hokkaido development strategy, these sectors are also identified as the highlights and spearheads to promote the growth of the region. Therefore, the Food and Tourism industry, along with a number of other related sectors, are identified as strategic growth sectors, and Hokkaido has strengthened its growth-promoting initiatives.

The reason why Hokkaido has proposed a strategic orientation for the combined development of the Food and Tourism industries is because they determined that: Tourism in Hokkaido cannot develop strongly without the strong development of the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries industries; promoting exports and increasing price competitiveness through the "food" brand associated with the Tourism industry; demonstrating the comprehensive strength of the entire region by combining the strengths of the two industries above. At the same time, they also determined that it is necessary to have precise steps to connect the Food and Tourism industries, including: Creating awareness of the need for connection; forming connection content (developing the entire region with local specialty foods and tourist attractions); implementing promotional activities (propaganda, organizing events and cooperating with the media). One of the most important issues is that the provision and transmission of information must ensure that it meets the needs of users and information about the region must be updated and detailed. In developing and implementing the Hokkaido brand strategy; Develop a system and cooperation mechanism to connect the Food and Tourism industries; must allocate enough budget for tourism development.

Next, Hokkaido leaders set out to build specific values ​​and products, such as: The value of Sapporo Ramen from the perspective of foreigners. Before that, starting around 1985, they opened stores selling Hokkaido products in places like Hawaii and Hong Kong, starting to provide authentic Sapporo Ramen to the locals there. The cooking method mainly used stir-fried vegetables, which helped promote the reputation of this noodle. Since around 2000, more and more people wanted to learn how to open Sapporo Ramen shops in places like Hong Kong and Singapore, they installed kitchens identical to those in Japanese Ramen shops, and cooking instructions were provided along with the ingredients. Sapporo Ramen stores run by Japanese companies have expanded from Asia to North America, Europe and then to the Middle East, and have been present in 16 countries or regions since October 2014. Compared to Ramen using local ingredients, it is 200 yen cheaper in Asia, and 300 yen cheaper in the US. The value of Ramen is most highly regarded in Europe, followed by the US and Asia. The term “Ramen” is recognized in many countries, and the wonderful “effect” is that diners who learned to use chopsticks 40 years ago are now learning to slurp when eating Ramen!

Some culinary dishes for tourism in Hokkaido.

Next, Hokkaido leaders proactively sought and identified partners. Ramen Company established a subsidiary in Dusseldorf, Germany in October 2013. The market size in Asia is enough to establish a subsidiary, but from the perspective of increasing the brand value of Sapporo Ramen and because the company had found a good partner, it started to establish a European subsidiary first. In order to enhance the brand value of tourism products, they also combined food, sightseeing and food safety. The Tourism Promotion Department, Industry Promotion Department of Kurishio City has compiled a handbook on improving the care of tourists with food allergies and foreign tourists with certain dietary restrictions, to serve tourists with diverse religious beliefs such as Muslims and vegetarians, clearly showing the ingredients used to prepare dishes, considering food allergies to ensure food safety. In the restaurant business, there is a system to display food ingredients in a unified manner for domestic and foreign tourists to know.

Information technology is also fully exploited in agricultural development, creating impressive highlights and results in Hokkaido. The city's problem is that the number of farmers and agricultural workers is decreasing (only half of what it was 20 years ago). Farmers are also aging (33.3% are 65 years old or older). Therefore, the city decided to use information technology to optimize agricultural production and improve agricultural product safety. Information technology applied in agricultural production here includes an agricultural weather information forecasting system, information from the global navigation satellite system (GNSS), and a guidance mechanism for automatic operation control; providing information including forecasts of wheat heading, germination, ripening and harvesting times; forecasts of pests and diseases; and information on surface temperature and water content in the soil where rice will be grown.

The power of visual communication is also a program that has been implemented in parallel with the investment and development process in Hokkaido; meeting the diverse needs of many different audiences when conveying information about Hokkaido's lifestyle and culture, helping to discover the precious aspects of this land from the eyes of foreigners. In 1997, the program "Hokkaido Time" was launched on JET-TV, conveying the message "Let it snow in Asia". This program was broadcast in Singapore, Shanghai (China), Taiwan, Vietnam, Peru and Cambodia. The program created a tourism fever in Taiwan by introducing tourist attractions and information about the blooming season in Hokkaido. The number of tourists from Taiwan to Hokkaido was 52,800 in 1997, which increased to 276,800 in 2005 (5 times). Thanks to the promotional programs on television, the number of foreign tourists to Japan increased significantly.

Some culinary dishes for tourism in Hokkaido.

Finally, the initiative to develop the “Marche” area with the renovation of the center of Furano City in Hokkaido. There has been a problem for many years in the tourist destination of Furano: 2 million tourists visit the tourist destination in the suburbs but do not enter the city center. The city government is determined to attract tourists to the city center and expand revenue. In the city center, although the relocation of the regional central hospital in 2007 turned a prime location along Route 38 (6,600m2) into vacant land, the local government has no plan to use it due to financial difficulties. If things continue like this, the city center will become a deserted place. If we rely solely on the government as in the past, it will be impossible to develop the center. The only solution is to let the private sector operate and change the face of the city. Consultations, forums and study meetings have been held more than 20 times. At the same time, traffic flow survey, local people's needs analysis and quantitative survey on community bus needs were conducted.

Some culinary dishes for tourism in Hokkaido.

To maintain the sustainability of the Furano Marche Downtown development, it is important that the developer makes a profit. While earning profits from rentals and sales, the company continues to reinvest in downtown renovation projects in cooperation with the government. The amount of capital raised increased from 10.35 million yen to 83.5 million yen (from 64 organizations). Thus, the development of the city, which had previously depended on the government, has now been transformed into a public-private partnership (with the government playing a supporting role). The new downtown renovation plan includes upgrading and relocating stores; building a shopping mall; food courts; facilities for the elderly with care services; kindergartens; medical stations; all-weather public areas; high-rise buildings and parking lots.

The highlight of the regional initiative is to exploit the huge potential of “food” in the city center. After completion, almost all kinds of vegetables that can be grown in Hokkaido will be sold in the shops in the city center. Up to 2,000 local branded products using local ingredients are sold, including high-value candies with eye-catching names and shapes. There are also nationally famous restaurants in the commercial area. Dairy farming and breeding are also very developed. The “Marche” area is turned into a place to promote culinary culture and information about the town. The center also has a spacious area for people to interact and have fun. Many benches and umbrellas are placed everywhere here to create space for people to relax… And as a result, the number of tourists increased significantly, from 550,000 in 2010, to 668,000 in 2011; 745,000 in 2012 increased to 795,000 visitors in 2013. Following the success of phase 1, Furano Marche is embarking on phase 2 of its downtown revitalization initiative to attract more visitors.