Osaka Center Opening To Attract More Meetings Biz
<B> Osaka Center Opening To Attract More Meetings Biz</B>
By Judy Jacobs
The opening of the new Osaka International Convention Center next spring will focus more attention on Japan's second largest city. As a major commercial and economic center within easy reach of the country's most popular tourist destinations of Kyoto and Nara, and with an increasing number of flights to its Kansai International Airport, Osaka is well positioned for growth in the meetings and conventions market.
That growth, in fact, began with the opening of Kansai International Airport (KIX) in 1994 on an artificial island in Osaka Harbor. The opening of KIX and the explosive growth in air traffic as a result made Osaka more accessible to international travelers. Between September 1994 and April 1995, the number of Japanese outbound and foreign inbound travelers departing and entering Japan through KIX registered a 50 percent increase over the same figures for the previous year at Itami, the region's former international airport.
The number of flights leaving Osaka showed an equally huge jump, more than doubling from an average of 175 per week at Itami in 1993 to an average of 411 per week at KIX in the summer of 1995.
The increased capacity at KIX gave many carriers--that hadn't before flown to Osaka--access to the city. It also gave airlines added frequency and routes to new international destinations. And the increase in service to and from Osaka continues. Japan Airlines, for example, on May 1 began five-times-per-week service to Osaka from Chicago. The airline also serves KIX from Honolulu and Los Angeles.
This increase in air access has spurred the development of meetings in the Osaka region.
"Since the opening of Kansai International Airport, a great many more meetings are heading for this area. Previously, they usually took place in Tokyo," said Bruce Kanfer, director of marketing and sales for the New York office of the Japan Convention and Visitors Bureau. "But the Kansai region is helping meetings move beyond Tokyo to not only Osaka, but Kobe--which is 30 minutes from Kansai Airport by hydrofoil--and Kyoto, which is easily accessible by train," he said.
Key in the development of the area is the creation of the Osaka International Convention Center, which will be ready for events in April. The center is conveniently located on Nakanoshima, an island situated in the northern part of the city, just south of Osaka Station. The facility will include a convention hall with permanent seating for 2,754 people, a smaller conference hall accommodating 400, a 29,763-sq.-ft. column-free exhibition hall and 25 meeting rooms accommodating between 25 and 300 people.
The convention center will be connected to the adjacent Rihga Royal Hotel by an underground walkway. The 990-room hotel, which originally opened in the late 1970s was completely renovated in the mid-1990s in order to host the APEC conference in November 1995.
The only other major meeting and convention facilities available in Osaka are the Asia and Pacific Trade Center and Intex Osaka, both located on Sakishima, an island in Osaka Harbor, which also is the site of the Hyatt Regency Osaka.
The Asia and Pacific Trade Center has a main hall, which can accommodate up to 3,294 attendees, a smaller conference hall seating 800 people and 19 smaller meeting rooms. The Intex Osaka has six exhibition halls, ranging in size from 54,750 to 431,000 square feet, as well as one conference hall, seating 300 attendees theater style.