Crafting an innovative tourism strategy for Hokkaido

ICF developed an integrated tourism strategy for the Hokkaido region of Japan for the winning consortium’s bid for privatization of 7 airports. Our work created a holistic vision, approach, branding, tourism products, inbound market targets, and the governance structure for the entire Hokkaido region. Our client used this strategy as part of their winning bid for the airport concessions, and are now in the process of implementing.

Challenge

In a unique move, the Japanese government designed the airport privatization process for Hokkaido to move responsibility for tourism management to the private sector. Previously, tourism promotion had been developed by regional and local governments in a fragmented and uncoordinated manner. To address this, and better promote the region, the Japanese government required bidders to develop a fully-formed tourism strategy and tasked the airport operator with overall coordination responsibility for tourism.

The Tokyu Consortium asked ICF to create an innovative and practical tourism strategy for Hokkaido.

Solution

ICF developed an eight-step process to create an integrated tourism strategy. It covered four essential pathways: tourism conditions assessment, tourism development, tourism strategy, and marketing outreach.

Where we are now

The Tokyu Consortium incorporated ICF’s strategy into their winning bid, and are currently using it as a comprehensive roadmap to attract more inbound visitors to Hokkaido.