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The very first TV travelogue series, introducing different places all over Japan, started back in 1970. The title of the program was “Tokue ikitai” (Want to go far). As the economy grew, people became to enjoy their leisure hours, the transportation system developed, and dreams of exploring to far away unknown towns and villages became to be fulfilled easily. “Tokue ikitai” started under such social circumstances. Seeing the scenery for the first time in an unknown place and experience the life, culture, and tradition of the people who live there gave big surprises and great joy to travelers. “Tokue ikitai” was a TV show to bring such surprises and joy to the viewers at home. They had also discovered that the scenery, culture, and tradition of unknown places were as Japanese as those of their local areas. That is to say, they “discovered Japan”. To tell you the truth, the director who produced the very first episode of “Tokue Ikitai” in 1970 is none other than myself. Since then, for 41 years, a countless number of travelogues have been produced. Lately, the Asian countries with high economic growth have shown many travel programs. “Festival Asia TV&FILM on Journey” is a chance to discover Asia by exchanging communication through such travel programs. Discovery leads to understanding. Understanding leads to communication. Communication leads to a new creation. Let us discover different cultures and understand mutually by communicating through travel programs from Asian countries. We are now standing at the starting point. Let us stabilize the competition in Asia first and then take the next step to the world.

Hokkaido is a beautiful place for tourists to visit. The unimaginably beautiful nature and scenery which comes with the changing of the four seasons, as well as the delightful cuisine which is rooted in the culture of Japan, leaves those who experience it utterly spellbound. In the past few years, Hokkaido has become widely known to the Chinese as the setting for the Chinese film “If You Are the One”. As a result, there has been a noticeable increase in people from China coming to visit Hokkaido. According to statistics, there were more than 220,000 visitors from China who made a trip to Hokkaido in 2010. This linking of the Hokkaido tourism industry with the culture of television has succeeded in making more people aware of Hokkaido, and it also helped advance its economy. This is a model example of how to develop cultural tourism. As such, the holding of the “Festival Asia TV&FILM on Journey” in Hokkaido is particularly meaningful in that respect, and it will surely serve as an impetus to strengthen the foundations of interaction and co-production for Asian travel programmes, as well as foster stronger collaboration between the tourism and television industries, all for the common goal of ensuring that film can be a valuable resource for creating and developing tourism. I truly hope that the “Festival Asia TV&FILM on Journey”will continue to be regularly held every year. It is an extremely effective way for us to develop the cultures of the countries in Asia, to develop our tourism industries, and to promote friendship and interaction among us. From the bottom of my heart, I wish every success to the “Asian International Travel Programme Grand Prix”.

With the start of the 21st century, the people of Vietnam felt that we were now entering into a “new age”. Before this, Vietnam´s image to the outside world was simply “the Vietnam War”, but now we have many companies looking to expand into new markets, we have many tourists who want to visit places which are off the beaten track, and we have many television companies now visiting Vietnam in order to feature the hitherto undiscovered culture of our country. Naturally, the arrival of so many people from overseas has sparked an interest in the Vietnamese as to what lies beyond our own borders. This understandable demand for new information about travelling to foreign countries or knowing more about foreign cultures is directed at the television companies, and, in order to respond to this natural curiosity, we are broadcasting a surprisingly large number of programmes dealing with foreign countries on both ground wave and cable channels. However, as exciting as the content from overseas may be, and with the spotlight now firmly on Vietnam, I think that we can do much more in terms of showing the previously unknown attractions of our country. I really want to be able to do this, not only for the people of Vietnam, but also for people throughout the world. To this end, I am extremely happy to be able to have the chance to meet and share opinions with so many people involved in television, and from so many countries throughout Asia. I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the people who made the effort to ensure this event took place. I truly hope we can all come together today, with our differing nationalities and differing specialities, to devise new ways to apply media and continue to do what we do best.