The Japanese government wants its citizens to spend more money traveling abroad…today the Japanese would rather work than travel.

Last year, 80 percent of all salaried workers in Japan refused to take all their vacation time. Japanese unions are dropping wage demands and asking for more holiday time to cooperate with the government’s plan. A strong traditional work-ethic practice, honed over centuries, may not be easily replaced.

But with the support of Japanese government and unions, and with major companies rounding up tourists (a new long-range business plan), there is a good probability of long-term success. And the ultimate effect on the international travel industry would be dramatic.

Consider the following situation where the Egyptian government (to earn more foreign currency) asked Nippon Electric Company (NEC) for assistance in attracting Japanese tourists.

Here was the deal: NEC agreed to export tourists—up to 3,000 annually—from Japan via Egypt air. In return, NEC, who already controls half the television electronics market in Egypt, gets a larger, continuing hold on the local market.

Why? Because the Egyptian government agreed to spend half the airfare earned, plus all the money spent by the tourists, to buy TV parts from NEC. (Last year a government-controlled electronics assembly plant ordered parts from NEC for 260,000 television sets.)

Tourism is the world’s second largest industry and extremely competitive, so you can look for similar and even more startling deals as governments and global companies find such barter deals so enticing. It’s even more profitable when all factors are taken into account.

Suggestion: Contact a barter company (trade exchange) today for travel availabilities. Always consider using your secondary capital (your trade dollars or your products/services) as a form of payment when planning your trip.

See the BarterNews website for its extensive travel section: TRAVEL

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 2:50 pm and is filed under Big Ticket Barter, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.