Chinese tourists prioritize nature in Japan: survey

FUKUOKA, June 9 Kyodo - Chinese people tend to prioritize nature while South Koreans prefer to put emphasis on tradition when they pick Japanese cities as travel destinations, according to a survey recently released by a research institute.

The largest batch of Chinese people polled said they would like to ''feel rich
natural environments'' in response to a question about what attracts them in
selecting Japanese cities, while having the chance to experience ''traditional
local culture and festivals'' tops the list of attractions cited by South
Koreans.
The survey was conducted in February and March by the Fukuoka Asian Urban
Research Center, a group affiliated with the Fukuoka municipal government, on a
total of 875 men and women aged between 20 and 59 living in the Chinese cities
of Guangzhou, Qingdao and Dalian as well as in Seoul and Busan in South Korea.
The survey also showed that Tokyo is the most well-known city among the
respondents. Yokohama and Osaka came second and third, respectively, in the
survey conducted in China while the poll in South Korea put Osaka in second
place and Sapporo in third.
As for Kyoto, an ancient Japanese capital and a famous tourist destination, 82
percent of the South Koreans and 65 percent of the Chinese surveyed said they
know of the city, which placed seventh on the name-recognition list in each
country.
The poll found that cities in Japan's southwestern main island of Kyushu were
relatively unknown, with Fukuoka ranked eighth and Nagasaki failing to rack up
single-digit numbers in both countries.
''Provincial cities need to come up with better tourism strategies that
accommodate tourists' needs and preferences in efforts to boost their brand
power,'' said Eiko Yamashita, an official of the Fukuoka research center that
carried out the survey in a bid to boost the city's tourism sector.
==Kyodo