I was interested to hear that Japanese regional governments are offering bloggers special tour packages in exchange for blogging favourably about the local tourist sites.
Rishiri Fuji from a Ferry
In the town of Rishirifuji on Rishiri Island, west of Wakkanai, Hokkaido, The Japan Times reported that the tourist association sponsored a three-day tour, including transportation and lodging.
The condition was that the participants would blog about their experiences.
Rishirifuji is a long way north, but has quite a lot of google blog traffic.
Is this because they have enticed a lot of bloggers? It certainly looks very beautiful and rugged.
In the prefectures of Niigata, Gifu and Shimane, the Tourist Associations are also supposedly targeting bloggers. According to the article, it sounds like bloggers are being fed with local delicacies for strong reviews.
So far I have not had this pleasure – so I think I will go to twitter to find out more.
Has anyone approached the tourist associations in their local area to try this out I wonder?
Can I link to someones blog who has blogged for a Japanese tourist association and received free transportation or food as a result of their work perhaps?
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I have lived and worked in Japan for the past twenty five years off and on. I have seen many changes and enjoyed the various paradoxes and anomalies of everyday Japanese living.
Seems like a nice deal, but if you ended up on a tour where it everything was horrible it would be really sad to have to write nice things about it!
I’d even feel bad if it was just mediocre!
I am in the middle of writing a blog post on this subject and I was interested to find out the bloggers mentioned in the article. I’ve not found any yet after a few minutes of searching, but I found this blog!
Getting freebie travel in exchange for a review is part of the great BS of the newspaper world. No matter how hard you wish to remain honest, the thought of that free trip to Hokkaido or Okinawa does tend to skew your take on the holiday to always positive shite, which, while sometimes is fair enough, is not doing the reader a service – you end up being as bland as the dreaded mainstream media. You lose the respect of your readers. But gain a free holiday.
Our Man would prefer to pay his own way and keep his opinions free.
This comment was originally posted on http://seoul-man.blogspot.com/)“>I’m A Seoul Man in Tokyo
Thanks. I can see the problem.
This comment was originally posted on http://seoul-man.blogspot.com/)“>I’m A Seoul Man in Tokyo
I like the site and the content here, very interesting
Thanks for the comments – I have also searched today for answers – and I cant find any evidence on the web of any bloggers who are provided with benefits from Japan Prefectures or Japan travel associations.
As a result, I decided to put it ‘out there’ on twitter to find out if this was the case.
There was various helpful feedback throughout the day.
Lots of people replied that they would like to have travel benefits/incentives in reply for blogging.
Some people replied that if travel incentives were issued blogging could end up as a type of spam.
Others were not keen on the whole idea of incentives because it might obligate the blogger to give a favourable review even if they didnt believe it was warranted.
One person even asked whether The Japan Times had muddled the word, ‘blogger’ with something/or somebody else ? Personally, I dont know.
So, after gathering my twitter feedback (thank you) and my google searches (I found nothing on Japan travel incentives) – I wrote to The Japan Times to ask them if they would clarify their source and perhaps provide a more concrete example of what they meant in the article dated today June 16 2009.
So far I am waiting on their reply. Stay tuned.
Interesting! By the way, did you search in Japanese?
I wondered why Japan Times had not included any links, so perhaps if
they were Japanese bloggers that might explain it .
Thanks – that did cross my mind – but I would like to hear from The Japan Times which is an English language newspaper – and see if that is what they meant – The article has caused such interest within the English speaking/ Japan resident community – I feel that the paper should perhaps make the message clear to all….. (?)
Thanks Our Man in Abiko. Understand your point re. the freebie travel for positive review.
My point was that the Japan Times had reported that there was freebie travel for bloggers but I could not find any evidence of that from online sources. I would still be interested to find out how valid the information in the article was. But I take your point. (I am not a travel blogger by the way.)
No news yet from Japan Times ?
The story is now on Japan Today.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/top-in-category/view/bloggers-get-perks-to-promote-local-tourist-spots
and discussed on Japan Soc
http://www.japansoc.com/Blogging/bloggers-get-perks-to-promote-local-tourist-spots-japan-today/
It could just be a ploy by the tourism authority to get people to blog about it,