In September, Toa Travel based in Tokushima Prefecture hired Rod Walters of Japan Inbound as an interpreter for a fam trip in Nishi-Awa. Rod accompanied three influencers from web, newspaper and video media for three days, visiting the workation sites and satellite offices promoted by the Tokushima local government.
Workations and satellite offices are intended to improve the work-life balance of employees. Workation is a portmanteau of work and vacation, and it suggests enjoying a holiday while working. Satellite offices are remote offices of companies located in major cities, to which corporate functions and employees are transferred, allowing the employees to enjoy a rural lifestyle. With these initiatives, Tokushima Prefecture aims to increase the number of visitors and create a flow of strategic information. By inviting foreign influencers, they aim to attract workationers and satellite offices from overseas, increasing the impact of the initiative.
On a very tight schedule, we visited coworking spaces, tourist attractions, and heritage sites in each part of Nishi-Awa, and took part in hearings and social events with local government, businesses and media.
After the trip, we received this email in English from the organizer.
Dear Rod san,
Thank you very much for your translation through the fam trip. I really appreciated your precise translation coming from the knowledge of Nishi Awa. I think it would not have been like that if someone else had done the same role. And your personal relationship with Nishi Awa people drew out some nice undisclosed information from them which should have been useful to the writers. I am also grateful for your personality to have taken care and kept a nice relationship with all the writers. Without you, the project would have been failed.
Thanks again for all of your work. I would like to work with you on in-bound projects in Nishi Awa in the near future.
Please keep in touch.
Through our participation in this project, we also obtained some information and connections that will be useful for the operation of Shikoku Tours, managed by Japan Inbound. We intend to use this knowledge to send more inbound travelers to Tokushima.
Photos: Ryota Inui