Behind a Japan Special Tour:

The beginning of my Tourism journey

Hi I'm Geoff, the Director of Japan Special Tours.

Thank you for reading this,

I will be using this blog from time to time to look at the tourism industry and talk about the stories behind the way I create a special tours journey. I hope my stories will be informative enough and interesting enough for you to be able to look a bit closer at your travel options in a post coronavirus world and gain a good idea of what we offer.

The best way for me to start, is to explain where I started my tourism journey.

Dad was a soldier, Mum was a Doctor, me, well I kind of went in the direction of travelling to another country and being nice to people, a pretty good mix of the two :)

I was fortunate to begin learning about the Tourism industry at James Cook University's pioneering Tourism Department in Townsville, Australia.

As a student in this newly developed facility and course, I was able to receive daily education from some of the world's leading tourism experts, people sought after for their opinions in planning, strategies and education. It was a unique time of personal access to the biggest brainbox behind the developing global tourism industry.

I took a deep dive into learning this tourism industry, and looked in the nooks and cranny's, into all the parts that make it so, the what, where, why and how's of a newly developing industry. We were hands on and in the field, using North Queensland as a place to learn regional and local destination management strategies. We audited attractions, destinations and operations and looked closely at access and transport routes for domestic and international markets, planes, trains and automobiles. We learned how to run and establish a tourism business, develop , promote and identify market segments and studied the psychology of tourists themselves. Why people travel, How they travel. As I progressed my studies I found my interest was in regional and local tourism, ecotourism, sustainability and studying Japanese language. I thought it may come in handy eventually at the time.....who knew?

I completed my study by researching a thesis based on these ideals and came up with a simple strategy for using the design and wording of signage to encourage mindful behaviour in people to result in less litter at natural recreation sites.

I have since realised that this introduced me to the power that simplicity has to be special, something that as I am always discovering, is at the core of Japanese culture.

ahh, you know, I'd have to show you... :)

I earned a Bachelor of Administration(Tourism) with Honours and decided to let that information simmer, it was time to get up close and personal with this industry, and with playing football of the round type taking up 50% of my scone, I needed the space :) .

I set foot into the world of 5 star hospitality.....

but that's another yarn for another time

Cheers for reading, I hope you come back again