Global tourism in new millennium BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE: Korean cooking classes for tourists

NAGOYA, Japan - How to fully tap Asia Pacific's travel and tourism

growth potential at the onset of the 21st century?

How can industry leaders and stakeholders face the challenges and

opportunities of the new millennium?

Moreover, how to cross the bridge to the new future?

Yotaro Kobayashi, chairman of the board of Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd., zeroes in on

these crucial points facing the trade as more than 1,000 industry leaders,

delegates and participants gather here for the 48th annual conference of the

Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

In his keynote speech, Kobayashi was bullish about the region's future and

expressed optimism that travel and tourism, as a global venture, can be

restructured and intensified by skilled leaders to maintain its competitiveness

in the market.

The advent of a mileage plan through deregulation, as well as service quality,

has become increasingly important to make the industry highly viable, said

Kabayashi.

"We can now say that we are alive in the age of 'globality' or global reality

where 'globalization is no longer a process but a condition toward global

integration."

Learning from Japan's experience, Kobayashi said that pundits often view the

90s in Japan as the "lost 10 years."

Even though Japan faces a serious national crisis and everyone - politicians,

bureaucrats and business leaders - recognized the need to reform, basically

we all saw the stop gap measures and failure to act promptly - hesitating to

suffer any pain. And we sank deeper into recession, and Japan's jobless rate

rose last February to a new post-World War II high of 44.6 percent, reported

Kobayashi.

Taking a positive view of the "lost 10 years", Kobayashi said those years can

be regarded as a period of breaking up the lost old system and rebuilding or

"restructuring" a system that is more suited to the new era.

"Unfortunately, the Japanese became somewhat lethargic after years of

economic success following the war and neglected warning signs of the

impact of globalization of the market economy, deregulation, and information

technology on their economy," Kobayashi said.

Kobayashi posed four challenges for the industry leaders: 1. Establish

economic systems based on the market mechanism; 2. Create new

businesses and markets through deregulation; 3. Achieve higher productivity

in management supported by corporate governance; and 4. Prepare safety net

as measures against the pains suffered from restructuring.

To think and do global, leaders must be able to clinch a strategy that will

position calculated moves against market economy upheavals, warned

Kobayashi.

Not fully applying the Anglo-American standard to Asia-Pacific's corporate

values, management reform and values must be tailored to suit the peculiar

needs of the region, he said.

In developing a new business model, which is neither Japanese nor

Anglo-American in nature, it will take a whole lot of ingenuity to make it

sustainable even after the year 2010. And it takes a strong leadership to do

so, Kobayashi said.