At the request of the Kyoto DMO, a pioneering tourism organization that is running an annual survey of Kyoto businesses, employees, and tourists, Koeeru is proud to announce the addition of Easy Japanese as a language choice in our survey tool, Koeeru Collector.

For the present survey, responses are collected in not only Japanese, but also in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and now, Easy Japanese. Easy Japanese is a way of displaying written Japanese with the phonetic readings appearing above the kanji characters, such that non-native speakers, who often work in the tourism industry in Japan, can also read it. Taking into consideration the number of tourism organizations that Koeeru works with, we felt that this was a great way to promote “crossing borders” and give voice to those who are usually overlooked.

The tourism industry in Kyoto involves not only the tourists themselves, but also many foreign nationals who serve those tourists in hotels, restaurants, and attractions. Kyoto DMO’s unique initiative seeks to efficiently collect Voice of Customer (VOC) data from not only tourists or customers of Kyoto’s hospitality industry, but also business operators and employees, whether they be Japanese or foreign nationals, and to utilize the data in a more inclusive customer-oriented way.

To read more about Kyoto DMO’s initiative, please click here (in Japanese).