With the dancing of the bright pink Sakura flowers and the imagery of the famous Mt Fuji peering over the horizon of a landscape dotted with skyscrapers, it’s no wonder why Japan continues to be one of the top destinations to travel to for tourists.
And with the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics that begins in late July, the country is set to rear in a great many more visitors, especially in the capital of Tokyo where the Games will be held across the city.
In a bid to prepare for the influx of tourists arriving for the sporting event, Japan has been prepping the city over the last few years to be as accommodating as possible to visiting foreigners — as seen from the gradual increase in the use of English by its citizens as well as establishments around the country.
Supplementary to this is also the growing number of YouTube videos documenting activities and attractions within the country, with several notably commissioned by the Japanese government to encourage people to visit beyond the metropolis of Tokyo. This is all in anticipation for these visitors who will presumably be staying the length of the Olympics — which will run through till 9 August — to support their respective countries.
Of course, Japan isn’t content with servicing the people who are coming just for the event; they would want these same people to return for future visits.
Key to this project in establishing a great first impression for visitors to the country. To that end, that is why they will be opening up a new attraction right inside one of their major airports, the Alibaba Cloud Gallery.
The Alibaba Cloud Gallery by Alibaba Group is a creative campaign held in collaboration with the Narita Airport not just to showcase the talents of budding Japanese artists, but also to serve as a memorable welcome for arriving visitors to the country.
Narita Airport will have nine walkways in the arrival sections of Terminal One and Terminal Two transformed into showpieces of digital art, with the campaign commencing from March of this year and concluding at the end of the same month in 2021.
These art pieces aim to showcase the variety of diverse Japanese expressions and colourful Japanese culture, all through a unique language of digital art.
The Alibaba Cloud Gallery is a perfect combination of this vision and the Olympic spirit,” said Chris Tung, Alibaba Group Chief Marketing Officer.
One of the artists on show is Shoichi Okumura, who specializes in modern Japanese “rock painting”. A central theme of his art surrounds youths, seen primarily on one of his artworks currently under production, which is inspired by Alibaba and will be on display at the event venue.
Another person whose work will be on exhibition during the campaign is Kanagawa-born artist Noriko Kinouchi. Two of her pieces, “The Sound of the Ocean” and “Butterflies”, are visual expressions of Japan’s most prominent aspects: the strength and beauty of the sea and gentle spirit of its residing nature.
How this campaign was even made possible was due to the efforts of technology company Alibaba Group, who formed a 12-year landmark partnership with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2017. As an Olympic Worldwide Partner, the company will leverage its innovative technologies to help the IOC transform the Olympic experience to be more connected, engaging, secure and efficient for the millions of fans around the world.
In the lead-up to the opening of the Olympics, Japan will be leveraging Alibaba’s expertise of innovative technologies, one of which played its part by transforming the still paintings into digital art through the use of Alibaba Cloud’s technology.
This, of course, will be the first of many steps by Japan to steer the global perspective to their favour, especially since they will be under the microscope in the coming months.
While Japan continues to plan more attractions, the Alibaba Cloud Gallery will provide a suitably elegant impression for first-time visitors to the land of the rising sun.
This post was brought to you by Alibaba Group.
