PACIFIC BASIN ECONOMIC COUNCIL
MAIN PAGE | EVENTS & PROGRAMS | 2001 | IGM | SPEECHES | AKIRA KONDO

Additional Info: Policy Statements Speeches Photos Speakers & Noted Participants Featured Biographies Registration Media Information Conference Statement Regional Vitality in the 21st Century April 6-10, 2001 — Tokyo, Japan Mr. Akira Kondo Senior Advisor Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. Ladies and Gentlemen, may we now begin the session. My name is Akira Kondo and I'll be serving as the Chairman of this session. After graduating from University, I joined Japan Airlines and more than forty years have passed since I joined Japan Airlines. Three years ago, I left office of President and currently, I am Senior Advisor of Japan Airlines. For many years, I've been involved in tourism business, today on this session on Cultural Exchange and Tourism I have the honor of serving as the session chair. I very much appreciate your cooperation and I'd like to work hard so that the session will be a fruitful one. The theme of the session today, Cultural Exchange and Tourism is important in contributing to the peace and prosperity of the world. This is indeed a very worthy topic for the PBEC IGM, which is the first one in the 21st century. First of all, I would like to briefly explain to you the current status and significance of tourism industry in the world. The first point that I would like to point out is the fact that tourism is a very important industry and it has tremendous economic ramifications. Also, if you are to compare tourism with export, you can say that tourism is the largest export commodity or item and on that I'm sure that there will be more detailed explanation by the members of the panel later on. Another point that I'd like to make is that in addition to the size of the industry, tourism is an industry where very high rate of growth is expected. Often times nowadays, there is a comparison between new economy and old economy, these are the buzz words of the day. In PBEC as well, there are lots of discussion on new economy. There is a notion that new economy entails high growth and old economy entails low growth, there is such preoccupation. However, as far as tourism is concerned, in spite of the fact that tourism is a typical old economy, it has very high growth rate - especially here in the PBEC region. The growth rate is estimated to be the highest in the world and I would like to emphasize this fact. I've just talked about the economic aspect, let me now touch upon two non-economic aspects. Firstly, tourism contributes to world peace. The United Nation's notion is there that tourism is passport to peace. In the world of the new century, in the 21st century, the world is getting more and more a complex place so much so that this aspect of tourism contributing to the world peace is of growing importance to the world. The second non-economic aspect is its relationship with environment. There is a notion that tourism brings about destruction of the environment, however, natural environment and cultural heritage, these are indeed the very fundamental, indispensable fundamental foundation of tourism. For a sustainable development of tourism, preservation of environment is a must. In other words, tourism and environment should co-exist, tourism and environment should live hand in hand and co-exist. Furthermore, tourism is an industry that should contribute to better environment. So in many respects, tourism is a very important industry and on this very important industry, in order to promote cultural exchange and tourism in this region, what should we do? What sustainable way can we remove obstacles to tourism, improve competitiveness of the industry and at the same time to increase overall supplying capacity? What can we do to make this all possible? I would like to think together with you these questions. So much for the introductory remarks, I would like to ask the speakers to give their presentations. Let me first of all introduce the members of the panel. Today, we have three speakers from Canada and the United States. First from Canada, we have the pleasure of having with us Mr. Derek Hood. Mr. Hood. Thank you very much Mr. Hood. In this session, basic issues that expected was all covered in all overall manner by Mr. Hood and I'm very thankful to him. In the ESI, Japan did not come in the ranking and I was somewhat concerned. Now moving on to the next speaker from Nike, Vice President International Business and Government Relations, Dr. Joseph Ha. It's my great pleasure to introduce to you the background of Dr. Ha. Dr. Ha, in addition to Nike, is a professor in a university and with government organizations. He serves on the committee as well. Now without further ado, I'd like to call upon Dr. Ha please. Thank you very much Dr. Ha. Thank you very much for your presentation from very macroscopic perspective especially on the matter of environment and also the tourism from developing countries' perspective. I thank you very much for your very good presentation. Last but not least, I'd like to introduce the last speaker, Mr. Robert Fishman, Chief Executive Officer of Hawaii Tourism Authority. Mr. Fishman is currently Chief Executive Officer of Hawaii Tourism Authority, he used to be the Vice President of Hawaiian Airlines for 35 years. He has been involved in tourism business and government related business in Hawaii. It's my great pleasure to introduce to you Mr. Fishman. Thank you very much Mr. Fishman. I went to Hawaii on my honeymoon myself. Hawaii is indeed the leader of tourist destination and various efforts made on the part of the State of Hawaii. You have shared with us very specific information, it was a very informative presentation. With that, we have had presentations by all the three speakers. According to the schedule, I was planning to make a summary of the presentations but because of the limitation time, I am going to go without my Chairman's summary. Within the remaining time, I would like to invite the participants to ask questions and comments to the speakers. Last final words from myself to wrap up this session. So in today's discussion, tourism we understand is the largest industry in the world with high expectations for further growth in the future especially in the PBEC region, we can expect the highest growth in the world. And there is great opportunity for the developing countries to earn some foreign currencies so to develop such industry in this region, government, private sector and local communities will have to work together to address all the measures that were introduced today. I think that could be confirmed from what we heard today and also in terms of non-economic factors as I said in the beginning, tourism leads to world peace. It is the passport to peace, with that perspective, people exchange cultural exchange should be passed through the travelers as well as the local people, that kind of perspective will be very significant in the future. That was another point that was confirmed today. One more thing is the relationship with tourism and environment. Some people say that tourism does lead to the destruction of the environment but in principle, those are natural resources and cultural heritages are indispensable means for tourism. So in order to realize the sustainable development of tourism, that environment is indispensable, tourism and environment should co-exist with each other, to live together in a symbiotic way. Or rather tourism should contribute to the protection of the environment positively, that's what we have to keep in mind in order to execute our business. Those are the points that had been reconfirmed from your presentations and the discussion. Lastly, I believe Mr. Hood mentioned that proverb of old saying in his conclusion but he didn't really tell us what it was and I did have his script so let me actually read that out to you. "We have not inherited the Earth from our ancestors. We have only borrowed it from our children." So that was the old saying that was introduced by Mr. Hood and this is a great saying so I want to reintroduce it to you in the end. With that I'd like to conclude the session. I'd like to thank all the participants and in conclusion, I'd like to once again thank all the three speakers who gave us a great presentation with much applause.