title: Hokuriku Tales vol.3

Summary

A book of five stories about Fukui, Ishikawa and Toyama with useful data vol.3

About the publication of“Hokuriku Tales”Vol. 3The Hokuriku Shinkansen (bullet train) Line between Nagano and Kanazawaopened on March 14, 2015, and the fastest travel time between Tokyo and Kanazawais now 2 hours and 28 minutes.This has attracted people’s attention to the touristic charms of Hokuriku, withefforts being made region-wide.As a part of our effort to raise the profile of Hokuriku and increase people?sawareness about its charms and attractiveness, the Hokuriku Economic Federationand the Hokuriku Image Improvement Conference have come to publish“HokurikuTales”Vol. 3, a booklet directed mainly to tour operators and other professionalsinvolved in tourism.“Hokuriku Tales”presents five tales about the history, culture,natural environment and other regional resources of the three prefectures ofHokuriku. The core competence or major strength (See Note 1) of Hokuriku thatthis booklet conveys effectively should help tourists increase their interest in andawareness about Hokuriku.Now it is available in electronic book form on the Internet to help tour organizersand operators make quick searches of places of interest and to otherwise plan tours toHokuriku. We would be more than happy for those who are in the tourism industry tomake good use of this booklet.We sincerely hope that this booklet will help increase people?s interest towardsHokuriku tourism and will help bring more visitors to Hokuriku.* Please contact the Hokuriku Economic Federation for the use of photographs and other images contained in this booklet.■Note 1. Core competencies (major strengths) of HokurikuThe Hokuriku Economic Federation set up the Hokuriku Inter-prefectural TourismStudy Working Group comprising government in 2010, academia and businessrepresentatives of the three prefectures, which group completed a report titled“Touristic Revitalization of the Hokuriku Region”and worked to identify the corecompetencies of Hokuriku from a tourism perspective.Their evaluation of the various resources that the three Hokuriku prefectureshave in common such as nature and history or life and culture as well as food led tothe conclusion that the core competencies of Hokuriku in terms of tourism lie in the“well-preserved Japanese traditions and a beautiful living environment that oozeselegance without ignoring the needs of time.”These factors are rarely seen in otherregions, and all three prefectures are determined to make efforts to establish a unifiedimage that symbolizes Hokuriku?s uniqueness and would use that image for promotingthe Hokuriku Brand.2Hokuriku Tales vol.3