As part of the FY2023 “Tourism and Regional Economic Revitalization Pilot Project through Data Collaboration among Businesses and Regions,” the tourism information website Visit the Oki Islands has been revamped. 

What was Renewed

The previous Visit the Oki Islands website was limited to sharing local tourism information. It has now been upgraded to a site with features that allow people to make reservations and payments for accommodations and activities online (making it a local OTA, or online travel agency).  

This change enables travelers to access tourism information for each island in a centralized location and make reservations smoothly. Additionally, a new customer database (CRM) was created, and data from this CRM has been utilized to progress initiatives to promote tourism around the islands and repeat visits from travelers. 

What’s more, it emphasizes local resources such as nature, culture, and festivals that are unique to the Oki Islands, a designated UNESCO Global Geopark. By clearly conveying the charms of geopark sites that tell the story of the Oki Islands creation, its beautiful natural scenery, and its traditional culture and rites, it has been rebuilt as a media website that goes further than simply introducing the islands as a tourist destination and allows visitors to experience the area on a deeper level. 

Visit the Oki Islands website, post-renewal

Background of the Renewal

The Oki Islands holds the potential for diverse stays and activities, with distinctive tourism resources on each of its four islands. 

However, checking and making reservations for accommodations, activities, and dining used to require a traveler to call individual facilities or local tourism associations. This process was burdensome, leading some to abandon their plans to visit the Oki Islands or experience dissatisfaction with their stay.  

Moreover, the large volume of phone inquiries created a burden for business operators and tourism associations, preventing them from adequately allocating resources to provide high-value services based on traveler needs. Furthermore, because each island’s local government and tourism association implemented their own initiatives and accumulated data separately, the use of a region-wide CRM stalled, and marketing based on customer information was not being carried out effectively. 

These factors created demand for improved convenience in making reservations and payments as well as the use of data-driven tourism promotion, which led to the renewal of the website. 

Results of the Renewal 

As a result of this renewal, Visit the Oki Islands has evolved from a simple information-sharing site into an integrated local tourism platform with reservation and payment features. This allows travelers to obtain information about accommodations and activities from a central source and smoothly make reservations. Additionally, it has contributed to streamlining operations and improved productivity (such as reducing the burden of phone inquiries for booking) for the 27 accommodation facilities (as of April 2024) and activity providers (35 activities, as of April 2024) that participate in this local OTA. 

Furthermore, the implementation of cross-selling utilizing collected customer data and reservation information as well as an increase in activities touching upon the geopark’s story and its cultural background has helped to promote advance bookings for experience-based products and increase tourism spending. Through this project, tourism across the islands has become more convenient and our economy has been revitalized. 

Our Vision Moving Forward 

Moving forward, CRM will be further utilized to analyze behavioral data for each traveler, building a system that offers more personalized tourism proposals. Finally, we aim to establish a sustainable tourism model by coordinating digitalization across the islands and establishing a system in which tourism businesses and local governments can seamlessly collaborate.