While COVID-19 has made impactful changes in travel and tourism industries, the tourism representatives of Kochi have conducted many events and promotions to preserve their home in this pandemic. Located in the Shikoku region of Japan, Kochi is known for its warm climate, its mountainous terrain, and its access to the Pacific Ocean. Some of its most notable geographical features consist of the Shimanto and Nyodo Rivers, Muroto UNESCO Global Geopark, as well as the Ashizuri Uwakai and the Shikoku Karst National Park. And like many parts of Japan, Kochi has a vast and rich history of its own which one can see in its museums such as the Ekin Museum and the Kochi Castle Museum.
One of the more recent promotions Kochi prefecture has adjusted to the pandemic is the global dance campaign, The Yosakoi Challenge: Yosakoi Your Way to Happiness, which was conducted to promote the Yosakoi dance. The Yosakoi Festival is a traditional dance festival with its roots dating back to Kochi prefecture that has since then grown to have many variations and is performed nationwide. Mainly, Yosakoi consists of holding two wooden Japanese clappers and dancing to original choreography and music that incorporates traditional dance motifs. Due to COVID-19, the organizers of the Kochi Yosakoi Dance festival moved the event online in the form of a global dance campaign where participants could take a video of themselves dancing to Yosakoi and upload it to social media as a form of social media challenge.
While travel and tourism are still in the midst of getting through COVID, Kochi prefecture hopes to leave a meaningful impression on prospective domestic and international visitors, encouraging them to consider Kochi as their first destination when COVID ends and culture and tradition thrive once again.
More for information about Kochi, visit: https://visitkochijapan.com/en
