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First of all, it is important to rely on the country background in terms of tourism destination point. Japan is the East Asian island nation. The country is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. It stretches from Okhotsk to Taiwan and East China Sea. Japan is referred to as "Land of the Rising Sun" and the "sun-origin" (Henshall, 2001).

From the geographical point of view, Japan may be referred to as the archipelago, which consists of 6,852 islands. Among the largest islands, it is possible to outline the following four: Shikoku, Hokkaido, Honshu, and Kyushu (Jansen, 2000). The population of the country reaches 127 million people, which is the tenth-largest one in the world. Its capital city is Tokyo which is the largest metropolitan area in the world; the total quantity of its residents is over 30 million people (Iwabuchi, 2002).

While referring to the religions in the country, it is important to put an emphasis on the fact that currently, the lion share of population is non-religious (in 2011, this index has reached 67% of total population), and the core religion in the country is Buddhism (Sugimoto, 2003). The shares and the dynamics of changes in the religion of the country are shown in the graphs in appendix 1 and appendix 2.

According to the statistical data, in 2012, 8.3 million foreign visitors have visited Japan. There are 16 World Heritage Sites in Japan such as Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto and Himeji Castle. Other places of interest for the tourists are the following: Mount Fuji, Nara, Tokyo, Okinawa, Niseko in Hokkaido ski resorts etc. (Varley, 2010).

While relying on the current trends in the Japanese tourism and Chinese visitors in particular, it is important to outline the following information. The significant share of the Japanese economy is impacted by the domestic tourism. The highest spenders in Japan are the Chinese travellers: approximately US $2.4 billion are spent annually, which is the quarter of the total expenditures made by foreign visitors. In addition, in accordance with the information presented by the Japan Tourism Agency in 2012, Chinese foreign visitors constitute the biggest share of visitors in Japan (appendix 3) (Japan Tourism Agency official web site, 2013).

Market Research

Growth Strategy: Ansoff Analysis

In Japan, there is a tourism promotion agency. Its mission is to maximise the contribution of tourism to society and economy of Japan. Also, it is committed to enhancing the status of excellent tourist spots in Japan.

Ansoff Matrix is an analytical tool for strategic planning, which allows tourism promotion agency to select one of the possible types of marketing strategies. The idea of the matrix is that there should be a relationship between the existing and the future products of the Japan Tourism Board and the markets in which tourism promotion agency is currently operating. Japan tourism industry requires a wide range of products, which provides the company with numerous growth areas. Companies need to determine their current position in the industry and choose the direction of their growth, which would provide them in the future with the most competitive position for their success. Thus, the tourism promotion agency strategy should be determined by three main factors:

1.                 The current situation as a set of products and markets in which the tourism promotion agency operates now;
2.                  Growth vector which specifies the direction of the tourism promotion agency based on its current status;
3.                  Competitive advantage: the key features of existing and the future products and markets that can provide tourism with a strong competitive position.

The marketing strategy of tourism promotion agency is determined through a mutual change (development) tourism companies and markets in order to meet the existing needs. The tool of choice of this strategy is Ansoff matrix.

Ansoff matrix

Featured matrix by goods-markets involves the use of four alternative marketing strategies for the conservation and/or increase in sales: market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification. The choice of alternatives depends on the degree of saturation of the market and the company's ability to consistently update the production; however, two or more strategies can be combined (Enright, 2012).

•                    The strategy of market penetration: increased marketing activities to enhance and strengthen the position of the enterprise market
•                    The strategy of market development: a new market with sales of old products in new regional, national, or international markets
•                    Product development strategy: selling new products to the old markets to increase market power
•                    Diversification strategy: the tourism promotion agency is entering new markets in order to reduce the risks of existing markets. The product range includes products that the company has not yet released; however, the main danger of this strategy is sputtering power (McCarthy, 1995).

Market Penetration

The strategy of market penetration is effective when the market goes up or not yet saturated. The firm can increase sales of existing products in existing markets with the help of an offensive move: the use of competitive prices. It increases sales by attracting people who previously have not used the products of this company. Thus, the demand of consumers has risen.

Market Development

Market development strategy is effective if the firm is trying to increase sales of existing products. It can penetrate into new geographic markets; enter new market segments, demand for which has not been yet satisfied; come up with a new way to offer existing products; and use new methods of distribution and marketing to make more intensive efforts to promote their products.

Product Development

Product development strategy is effective when a firm has a number of successful brands, and enjoys the commitment of consumers. The company develops new or modified products for existing markets. It focuses on new models, quality improvement, and other small innovations which are closely linked with those that are already embedded in goods. It sells them to consumers favourably disposed toward the company and its brands. We use traditional methods of marketing, with promotion focused on new products (Hill, 2007).

Diversification Strategy

Diversification strategy is used to ensure that the firm does not become overly dependent on one product line. The company launches new products targeted at new markets. The objectives of the distribution, marketing, and promotion differ from the traditional ones.

Market Segmentation

The importance of understanding the market segments may be supported by the fact simplifying the process of understanding of the Chinese customers’ core needs. It implies dividing people who purchase the services in similar ways into the groups. In other words, such approach enables identifying the diverse groups of customers who need different approach in treatment.

The segmentation of market and the target audience is considered to be the effective approach towards gaining the competitive advantage. The travellers may be divided in accordance with the eight stages of the Travel Life Cycle (TLC) developed by Roger March. These eight segments of the target audience are the following: school excursions, family trips, language trip, honeymoon, graduation holiday, in-company trip, overseas wedding, and silver trip.

The most attractive segments of target audience for the Japan tourism are the business trips, language trips, school excursions, and in-company trips.

        While developing the tours for each of the above-listed eight groups of target audience, it is important to take into account the core needs, and to put an emphasis on the core features of each particular tour. In other words, in the family tourism, the core emphasis should be put on comfort, availability of hotels, entertainment for children etc. In the language tourism, the communication with the native speakers should be the core target for the tour makers: creation of the possibility of participation in the common excursions, entertainment, and constant communication (Japan Tourism Agency official web site, 2013).

Leisure Tourism in Japan

While discussing the leisure tourism in Japan, it is important to put an emphasis on the fact that Japan is considered to be the competitive price shopping and entertainment tourism destination point of the international quality. There are shopping centres, mega malls, duty-free shopping outlets, hypermarkets, discount stores etc., which are currently in process of development and expansion.

In order to make the tourism sector in Japan sustainable, there is a need for the multi-stakeholder participation and wider sustainable development of the strategy. In addition, there is a need for partial implementation of the set of the actions alongside with the stated strategy.

Each particular issue of the industry development should be properly defined in order to achieve the sustainable tourism. The full support, seriousness, scopes, and commitment of all stakeholders of each factor should be evaluated.

In order to ensure the consistent understanding of particular concept, the sustainable tourism planning design should be implemented and presented at each level. Finally, the idea of sustainable tourism brainstorming in the light of the program, policy, and practice should be carried out by the local community and properly addressed to the executors.

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