مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد مقررات زدایی هوانوردی

مقاله سال 2016

Japan’s domestic economy slipped into an extended period of stagnation due to the collapse of its bubble economy, which caused the country to lose its “leading goose” position in the East Asian economic cooperation of the 1990s. Thus, in the early 2000s, the Koizumi Cabinet embarked on broad structural reforms, including a “Tourism-Oriented Nation Strategy” that would revitalize the economy and revive the charm of Japan. To realize this strategy, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) launched the Visit Japan Campaign in 2003, which aimed to double inbound tourists to 10 million by 2010. Next, the Abe Cabinet positioned tourism as one of the backbone industries of Japanese economy in the 21st century. In 2010, the Hatoyama Cabinet approved The New Growth Strategy, which includes “Becoming a tourism nation” into the seven strategic fields set up to break through the obstacles of Japan. Furthermore, the Second Abe Cabinet includes the tourism nation strategy into 11 strategic fields to revitalize Japan. Realizing the substantial contribution of inbound tourism, Japan currently is aiming to increase inbound tourism by attracting 25 million visitors by 2020.

In the past ten years, Japan central government, regional governments and tourism industries have implemented various measures to promote inbound tourism. These promotions are likely to have contributed to a 157% increase in inbound tourists, from 5.21 million in 2003 to 13.41 million in 2014. In 2014, the expenditure of the overseas travellers reached 2.2 trillion yen, which has contributed to Japan’s economic recovery and enhanced Japan’s soft power In particular, inbound tourism has played a role in resurrecting a powerful Japan by seeking the demand for tourism from Northeast Asia’s economic growth, such as South Korea (hereafter Korea), Taiwan, and Mainland China (hereafter China). As illustrated in Fig. 1, Korea, Taiwan, and China were the top three markets for Japan.

Aviation deregulation is one of the key measures adopted by the MLIT. Air travel is the primary form of transportation access to Japan. Believing that aviation deregulation was an essential condition to enlarging inbound tourism, the MLIT deregulated two aspects of its international aviation market. Firstly, international scheduled services were deregulated by expanding bilateral air transport agreements with relevant counties (regions). In 2007, the Asian Gateway Initiative indicated that Japan should change its aviation policy to achieve “Asian Open Skies”. Since then, Japan has established Open Skies Agreements with more than 28 countries and regions, which has led to an increas of scheduled flights to Japan, from 2350 flights per week in 2003 to 3782 flights per week in 2014. Scheduled services represented 97% of international air passenger traffic in Japan and contributed to the inbound tourism primarily.