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Forum - View topicINTEREST: Project to Offer Free Airfare to Japan to 10,000 Foreigners Canceled
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10461 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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It would be much more cost effective for JTA to invite selected journalists, bloggers and video bloggers to Japan instead.
instead of inviting 10,000 people, who have 100 or fewer friends each, they could invite 100 bloggers who have 10,000 or more followers. Hell, invite Natalie Tran alone and you'll reach more people that you would have with 10,000 average joes and janes. -t |
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firedragon54738
 Posts: 3113 Location: wisconsin |
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Well that suck good thing I didn't do that
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Cutiebunny
 Posts: 1767 |
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I'm going to say no on this. Why should some dolt can type a sentence and has lots of Facebook 'friends' be given preference over someone who chooses not to gush about their experience online? If the point of the campaign is to have foriegners come to Japan and spend lots of money, this could already be accomplished by reading posts on a whole slew of websites like Lonely Planet and CNNgo. Unlike a traveller who can only comment on a couple days/weeks of experience, these websites feature new content daily, and many of these are from people who live in the country. And, as someone who has gone to Japan several times, I would be more likely to consult LP or CNNgo for advice and insight rather than Joe Schmoe and his highly 'friended' blog. Although I would have tried to have gone for one of these free flights had the campaign occurred, I'm actually happy that the Japanese government decided against it. While the JTA site did bring up a good point regarding how the Japanese government would be viewed by those affected by the tsunami, I think it would also bring a lot of people that Japan might not want. I read some of the posts on the JTO website from people hoping to go to Japan on this program, and some of them are absolutely garish. Things like "I wanna go 2 Japan so I can go to a maid cafe!" aren't going to further the cause. Some of the sites asked that you mention how much you were planning on spending on the trip, and many people remarked that they'd spend less than $1000. While that may be a lot of money for some, if the government provided that person with a free flight, there would be little, if any, economic net gain for Japan. |
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Emerje
 Posts: 7413 Location: Maine |
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Was wondering whatever became of this. Seems like it would have been better for them to work with airlines to provide discounts and rebates rather than rely on the government to front the funds alone. I bet cutting air rates would do more to get people over there spending money and talking about their trip than giving out free tickets to a select group.
Emerje |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Good fishing net. Too bad all the big ones have gone down to the deep dark depths, or was that debts? Meanwhile the price of karosene just keeps going up.
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1945113
Posts: 291 |
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Knew it was a fail project from the very start...I just thought it would've been cancelled before now.
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2312 Location: Online Terminal |
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I have to disagree. If you aren't getting people who do travel reviews for a living, it starts to look a little odd when those people suddenly come back with pristine reviews of Japan. Plus, I don't think it would sway the target audience into mass bookings. If people want to go, but don't have the means to, a great review isn't going to help. At least with the original campaign, it was an opportunity for those who wouldn't normally be able to travel to achieve that dream. So if you still want some positive pub, either offer lesser discounts (like discounted hotels or rail passes) or hire an ad agency to create a cross-platform campaign and sink the rest of that budgeted money on infrastructure. |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14889 |
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Too late! They already spent it on this instead: Japan using quake disaster budget for whaling aid That's where your free flights money went. 
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Sunday Silence
 Posts: 2047 |
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You seriously believe in the propaganda Sea Shepard spews out? --------------------------------------------- And the cries of millions of weaboos echoed in depressed unison. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14889 |
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Oops, seems that article expired. But the news came confirmed from a government official. Here's the Yahoo News version: Japan funding whaling hunt with disaster budget TOKYO (AP) — Japan is spending 2.3 billion yen ($29 million) from its supplementary budget for tsunami reconstruction to fund the country's annual whaling hunt in the Antarctic Ocean, a fisheries official confirmed Thursday. Pissed off a lot of people in Japan. Some regret giving donations thru the government, instead of directly to local NGOs. |
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GhostShell
Posts: 1009 Location: Richmond, B.C., Canada |
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Personally, I think the original campaign was ill-conceived at best The money would have been better off spent on actual reconstruction. To me, the JNTO statement seemed to be more in line with reality than the press release provided by the JTA.
JTA wrote:
Considering entire towns were swept away and the amount of devastation that occurred because of the earthquake and tsunami, I suspect many in the affected regions would dispute that claim that "Almost all of Japan" was back to normal, at least from their perspective. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I can imagine. I'd be pretty pissed off too. After the nasty Christchurch earthquake in February I donated some money to the relief fund, and if I were to find out that my money went to fisheries research instead of helping those who lost homes and loved ones, I'd be livid. |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2634 |
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As much as I would have loved the chance to win a free trip to Japan, I do think the money is better spent in other ways.
Still I think maybe they shouldn't have made the announcement in the first place until they got approval from the Japanese government. |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10461 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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The point of the campaign was to bring people who would write about their experiences in Japan. It's bluntly stated that they were looking for people who would write about their experiences. They never were going to bring "someone who chooses not to gush about their experiences online.' So to use your own terms, rather than bring 10k dolts who can write a sentence and have lots of friends on Facebook, they should bring a few hundred professional bloggers/journalists who can write paragraphs and have thousands or millions of readers. No one was going to "win" a free trip. |
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Sunday Silence
Posts: 2047 |
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Cite your source, as it is not in the article posted. I can see if it private donations, but national funds is quite the different story. The USA has numerous questionable budgetary items, yet not too many receive such scorn. |
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