Japan Tourism Agency will analyze tweets to gauge tourists’ needs

TOKYO, Japan – The Japan Tourism Agency will analyze tweets by foreign tourists during their visits to Japan, in an effort to make the country a more attractive destination for visitors from overseas.

An official at the agency said the government hopes to understand the needs of foreign tourists, as their numbers are expected to increase toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

A data processing company commissioned by the agency will be responsible for analyzing the tweets after purchasing data from the U.S. company Twitter Inc., according to the agency official. The data processing company will analyze the kinds of tweets often made by tourists from different countries, and based on the analysis, the agency will plan effective measures to attract foreign tourists and provide information to local governments, travel agencies and other sectors.

For example, if there are many favorable tweets—like “it was great” or “I’d love to go”—about a hot spring resort, tours including a visit to the resort could be arranged, or signboards in English could be set up to help more tourists visit.

On the other hand, the government will use criticism such as “transportation is poor” and “there’s no currency exchange” as the basis for improvements.

The agency has already been collecting and analyzing the GPS data of cell phones to identify new sightseeing spots and other locations. Although the data mainly covers Japanese tourists traveling inside the country, the government has been considering whether it can use the system to understand the needs of foreign travelers. The agency aims to start its new analysis from next fiscal year.

“Making good use of Twitter has great possibilities since it allows us to check the effects of PR, find possible new sightseeing resources and so on. It should be possible to develop tourism more effectively if we combine the [Twitter] information collected with the GPS data,” said a senior official of the agency.