The Wakayama Prefecture Travel Industry Association (General Incorporated Association, Chairman Koyama Tetsuo, Hidaka Kanko) and the Wakayama Prefecture Travel Industry Association (Representative Director Koyama Tetsuo, same) held a regular general meeting on May 11th at City Inn Wakayama in Wakayama City, and all the proposals were passed as originally proposed. Chairman Koyama mentioned that the travel industry is losing individual customers to OTAs (online travel agents), and group and collective travel is on the decline. "We need to take measures and think about positive organization and planning proposals," he said in his greeting. As a concrete initiative, he proposed a "Wa Tabi" (Japanese travel) initiative to collaborate with municipalities, public organizations, and DMOs in Wakayama Prefecture to plan and create destination-based products and to support the attraction of customers, and asked for cooperation (see Travel News at the front page of the June 25th issue). Guest of honor, Shinya Kono, head of the Wakayama Prefecture Tourism Promotion Division, reported that the number of visitors to the prefecture in 2017 was 33.75 million. Of these, 480,000 were foreign overnight guests, a slight decrease from the all-time high recorded in 2016. He analyzed the reason for this as "the increase in accommodation facilities in Osaka Prefecture is having an impact," and pointed out that while there was a significant decrease in visitors from China, interest in Mount Koya and Kumano from Europe, the United States and Australia was high and the numbers were steady. Regarding domestic visitors, he said, "We are struggling with the decrease in tour groups, but we are proposing various types of tours such as nature, cycling and history, and are improving the reception environment so that customers can enjoy themselves." The regular general meeting of the cooperation association (Chairman Numata Hisahiro, Kishu Shirahama Onsen Musashi), which is made up of inns and other reception facilities, was also held. A sales meeting was also held, with travel agents and reception organizations enthusiastically negotiating.