Research into the preferences of Japanese tourists visiting South Coast of Finland

The aim of the Caito project 2017-2019 is to attract Japanese tourists in three Baltic sea coun- tries: Finland, Estonia and Latvia. This is done by promoting the participation of rural tourism companies in the Japanese market. The project is financed by the central Baltic program with members and partners from the three countries. Laurea University of Applied Sciences is one of the project partners. The purpose and objectives of this thesis project, which is a subset of the overall purpose of Caito project 2017-2019, is to identify and provide marketing strategy channels for the Finnish companies in the South Coast regions used by the Japanese tourist. There are several steps involved to achieve these objectives. At first, a general study of the Jap- anese tourist is made and the top three channels they used to find information when visiting Fin- land are identified. Furthermore, an understanding of their preferences and expectations about these channels available to them are listed and analysed based on how cheap, easy to use and comfortable they are. The knowledge base utilises related research, articles and literature and statistical reviews to generate ideas and provide secondary data. The methods used in collecting primary data were qualitative and quantitative approach. A SWOT analysis, personas and benchmarking were used in analysing the final outcomes of the report. The main outcomes of the project were that the Japanese tourist, especially the young and mid- dle- aged generations used more social media and the internet to find information about Finland and the South Coast region when they want to visit. The recommendations to the Finnish companies in the South Coast were that they should pro- mote more of their product and services to the Japanese population via social media and the in- ternet. Moreover, they should provide information in Japanese on their websites, and in guide- books and brochures in order to attract more audience