Kinki Nippon Tourist Kansai (President: Shusaku Mita) will manage and operate the World Heritage Site and National Treasure Himeji Castle from March 1st of this year. The company will improve its response to the rapidly increasing number of visitors to the castle, including foreign tourists. The company was commissioned by Himeji City. More than two and a half years have passed since the "Heisei Great Repair", and Himeji Castle now receives more than two million visitors a year. The number of foreign tourists in particular has increased rapidly, and is expected to continue to increase in the future. For this reason, improving the "hospitality" of visitors to the castle has become an urgent issue. Kinki Nippon Tourist Kansai employs about 50 staff members and conducts training that makes use of the know-how of human resource development that has been cultivated in tour conductor work. The company will encourage staff to improve their skills. In response to inbound tourists, the company will train multilingual guides and regularly conduct guided tours of Himeji Castle for foreign tourists, as well as place multilingual concierges in the castle to respond to visitors. The company will also plan and develop travel products aimed at attracting visitors to Himeji Castle. The company will also provide a service that complements the charm of Himeji Castle with VR to create new content. With the cooperation of Toppan Printing, they will develop tools that will make 360-degree panoramic videos and still images more immersive as virtual reality. They will also focus on providing information by creating and managing a website dedicated to Himeji Castle. The contract period will run from March this year to the end of February 2021. Kinki Tourist Kansai says, "We will make the most of the know-how we have cultivated as a comprehensive travel agency to contribute to increasing the number of visitors to Himeji City."