2月初め、私の今年のツアーが北海道から始まった。1週間を2セットだ。西日本を拠点としてきた私にはまだ不慣れながらも、いざ始まるや楽しいツアーとなった。2ツアーとも豪州からの団体で、雪が初めてというゲストもいる中、ゲストによる凍った路面での転倒には特に注意を払った。
In early February, I began this year's tour from Hokkaido. As I have been based in western Japan, I was still unfamiliar with Hokkaido, but once it started, it was a lot of fun. Both tours were groups from Australia, and some of the guests were new to snow, so I had to take a special care that my guests not to falls on the black ice.
雪まつり期間だった事もあり、札幌のラーメン横丁、小樽運河、函館山と北海道の至る観光地でもオーバーツーリズム状態だったが、駐車場をはじめ異常なまでに制約の多い関西と比べると、北海道は様々な点で自由度が広くツアーをコントロールしやすい。
Especially this period was during the Snow Festival in Sapporo, every tourism spots in Hokkaido, such as Sapporo's Ramen Yokocho-street, Otaru Canal, Mt. Hakodate, were in over-tourism conditions. However, compared to Kansai, which has an unusually large number of restrictions, including parking, Hokkaido offers a greater degree of freedom in many respects, making it easier to control tours.
一方、冬期観光という観点で青森県を観ると、決して北海道に劣るとは思えない。今後、どう洗練するか次第であるものの、その度合いによっては、むしろ、北海道や関西にはない冬期の魅力をＰＲできると思っている。当会の先のブログでも伝えているが、中国人が先取りして青森に目をつけている事がそれを十分証明しているのではないだろうか。
On the other hand, when looking at Aomori Prefecture from the perspective of winter tourism, it is by no means inferior to Hokkaido. Depending on the degree of sophistication in many fields, I believe that Aomori Prefecture will be able to promote its wintertime attractions that Hokkaido and Kansai do not have. As reported in a previous blog of ours, the fact that the Chinese have already set their sights on Aomori is ample proof of this.
