With the increase in inbound tourists, workshops offering traditional Japanese craft experiences are attracting significant attention.
A crucial element in this context is the introduction of “English support.” By providing explanations and guidance in English, visitor satisfaction improves, leading to positive reviews and repeat customers.
However, many workshops are unsure about how to implement English support effectively.
This article explains the benefits of incorporating English support for inbound craft experiences, introduces three specific case studies, and provides detailed guidance on key considerations during implementation.
Table of Contents
Expanding Sales Through Inbound Demand Is Key for Traditional Craft Businesses
For traditional craft businesses, expanding inbound demand is a major key to sales growth.
Many inbound tourists seek “authentic Japanese experiences” and “genuine crafts,” and by providing appropriate support, it’s possible to acquire new customers and cultivate long-term repeat visitors.
Western tourists, in particular, have high purchasing power and a strong willingness to invest in cultural value.
Therefore, English guidance systems, ease of booking, and natural word-of-mouth marketing become critical factors.
Here, we’ll explain the inbound strategies that traditional craft businesses should implement from three perspectives: English support, OTA utilization, and repeat customer strategies.
New Customer Segments Opened by English Support—Capturing Western Markets
Tourists from Western countries tend to highly value Japanese traditional crafts as “cultural experiences.”
For example, pottery experiences, lacquerware purchases, and textile workshops are appreciated as valuable experiences beyond mere souvenirs.
English support is crucial in this context.
By preparing English signage and brochures at workshops and stores, and ensuring staff can provide basic customer service in English, you can provide peace of mind.
Additionally, making official websites and social media English-compatible is essential, and having English-enabled booking forms and inquiry channels increases credibility.
Since Western markets have high per-capita spending, even small numbers contribute significantly to sales, making English support directly connected to acquiring new customer segments.
Maximizing Exposure by Increasing OTA and Booking Site Listings
When travelers decide on destinations, many use OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) and booking sites.
By listing traditional craft experiences and workshop tours on Booking.com, Tripadvisor, Airbnb Experiences, and similar platforms, overseas recognition increases dramatically.
It’s particularly important to provide comprehensive English descriptions of photos and experience content, as conveying the history of crafts and artisan dedication creates differentiation.
Integration with platforms directly linked to search, such as Google Maps and Instagram, is also effective.
OTA exposure is a means of increasing customer attraction without advertising costs, and as listings and reviews increase, higher ranking in search results follows, ultimately leading to increased visitors and sales.
Acquiring Repeat Customers and Word-of-Mouth Marketing Effects
To turn inbound demand into sustainable revenue, a system for cultivating repeat customers beyond first-time visits is essential.
Sending follow-up emails in English after experiences and providing information about return visit benefits or limited products can create motivation for the next visit.
Additionally, utilizing reviews and word-of-mouth has significant effects.
Western travelers particularly value Tripadvisor and Google reviews, so highly satisfying experiences become natural advertising.
Furthermore, by preparing Instagram-worthy craft experiences and product displays that are easy to share on social media, word-of-mouth ripple effects become even greater. By combining repeat customers and word-of-mouth marketing, traditional craft businesses can establish a stable customer attraction foundation and achieve continuous sales expansion.
Enhancing Brand Value Through Improved Customer Satisfaction
For traditional craft businesses, enhancing customer satisfaction is an important element that strengthens brand value beyond merely providing sales or experiences.
The sense of security and emotional experiences that visitors feel directly connect to subsequent reviews and evaluations, leading to future repeat customers and new customer acquisition.
Especially for inbound foreign tourists, language support and providing a comfortable experience environment are essential, and establishing a system where Japanese culture can be deeply understood through experiences is key to building trust.
Here, we’ll explain stress-free experience design, the importance of English guides, and evaluation improvement through surveys and review acquisition.
Reducing Stress During Experiences and Strengthening Hospitality
To enhance customer satisfaction, reducing stress during experiences is crucial.
In traditional craft experiences, clearly showing the flow from booking to reception to the actual production process allows participants to enjoy with peace of mind.
For example, carefully explaining how to use tools, deploying appropriate support staff, and providing adequate rest periods are innovations that contribute to overall experience comfort.
Additionally, facility cleanliness, multilingual signage, and small thoughtful gestures (such as tea service or photo assistance) become significant satisfaction factors for customers.
Strengthening hospitality not only properly conveys the appeal of traditional crafts but also has the effect of elevating the credibility and value of the entire brand.
Deep Cultural Understanding and Emotional Impact Through English Guides
For inbound tourists, traditional crafts are not merely production experiences but “windows into cultural understanding.”
Therefore, deploying English guides and clearly explaining the meaning of techniques, historical background, and regional characteristics significantly influences customer satisfaction.
For example, in lacquerware experiences, explaining the process from lacquer collection to finished vessel, or in pottery, touching on kiln characteristics and regional differences are possible innovations.
By adding such information, participants gain deep understanding beyond superficial production experiences, elevating it to an emotional experience.
Additionally, by conveying cultural background as a story, customers develop attachment to their work, and the craft they take home becomes the travel memory itself.
English guide explanations become an element that internationally enhances brand value.
Achieving Five-Star Reviews Through Satisfaction Surveys and Evaluation Improvement
A system to quantify customer satisfaction and connect it to improvements is also essential. By requesting surveys or online evaluations after experiences, specific feedback can be obtained.
Particularly, high evaluations on OTAs, Tripadvisor, and Google reviews directly connect to new customer acquisition, making efforts toward five-star reviews important.
For example, systems that inform about “special benefits for posting reviews” after experiences, or methods of establishing photo spots that are easy to share on social media.
By visualizing customer satisfaction and running a continuous improvement cycle, brand value increases long-term, connecting to sustainable growth of traditional craft businesses.
Establishing Competitive Advantage and Differentiation Strategy
For traditional craft businesses to achieve sustainable growth in the inbound market, differentiation from other tourism and experience services is essential.
Particularly, English communication capability, cultural background explanations, and collaboration with local governments and regions are major elements that demonstrate competitive advantage.
Since inbound foreign tourists clearly seek “reasons to choose,” businesses that combine reliable communication, deep cultural experiences, and regional appeal are more trusted.
Here, we’ll explain differentiation through English support, added value through cultural explanation, and promotion strengthening through regional collaboration.
Creating Reasons to Be Chosen Through English Support Rate Differences
For inbound tourists, “whether they can communicate with peace of mind” is a major criterion for choosing experiences.
When searching for craft experiences or workshop tours, facilities that allow booking and inquiries in English become reasons to be chosen.
Conversely, if support is insufficient, even attractive content may be avoided.
Therefore, website and brochure preparation in English, multilingual booking forms, and on-site English conversation support are essential.
By utilizing AI translation tools, staff burden can be reduced while improving response accuracy.
Having a higher English support rate compared to competing facilities becomes brand strength itself, ultimately clarifying “reasons to be chosen with peace of mind.”
Improving Added Value Through Cultural Background Explanation
Traditional crafts hold special value for customers by knowing not just production experiences or product purchases, but the history and regional characteristics behind them. For example, innovations like explaining the lacquer tapping process in lacquerware experiences, or introducing types of clay and kiln differences in pottery experiences are important.
By preparing English guides and multilingual materials, foreign travelers perceive crafts not as “objects” but as “stories,” connecting to emotion and empathy. This added value escapes price competition and becomes a factor for being chosen even at high price points.
By incorporating cultural explanations, customer satisfaction dramatically increases and connects to reviews and return visits, demonstrating significant effects as a long-term differentiation strategy.
Strengthening Promotion Through Regional Collaboration and Government Support
Rather than traditional craft businesses communicating alone, collaborating with the entire region or local governments significantly increases promotional effectiveness.
If listed on tourism association or government official sites and inbound brochures, information credibility and reach increase.
Additionally, by planning “craft + tourism experience packages” in collaboration with local restaurants and accommodations, products become highly convenient for travelers and more likely to be chosen.
Furthermore, by utilizing government subsidies and public relations support, overseas market exposure can be expanded while suppressing advertising costs.
Regional initiatives realize customer attraction at a scale difficult for individual businesses, ultimately contributing to overall craft brand value improvement.
Learning from Success Stories: 3 Effects of English Support Implementation
The importance of English support in traditional craft businesses is already demonstrated by many success stories.
Business operators who have provided English guidance and organized booking pages for experiential programs and workshop tours have greatly succeeded in acquiring overseas customers.
A blacksmith shop in Gifu Prefecture has attracted worldwide attention through knife-making experiences, a dyeing workshop expanded sales channels through multilingual landing pages.
Furthermore, a pottery class in Kyoto dramatically improved review ratings by introducing English guides.
These cases demonstrate that English support is not merely providing convenience but is a strategic element that strengthens international credibility and revenue foundation for businesses.
Case Study 1: Gifu Prefecture “Asano Kajiya” Expanding International Customer Attraction Through Knife-Making Experiences
Western tourists particularly highly value “Japanese blade culture,” and programs where they can actually experience the forging process themselves hold great appeal. Since completed knives can be taken home after the experience, they’re supported as high-added-value products that combine travel memories with practical items.
By thoroughly implementing English support, natural advertising through reviews and social media has spread, making it an excellent example of dramatically increasing international customer attraction capability.
Case Study 2: Hirose Dyeworks (Edo Komon) Addressing Overseas Markets with English Support
Founded in 1918, fourth-generation Yuichi Hirose holds the vision of “challenging overseas markets with Japanese traditional culture,” developing contemporary products such as stoles and neckties in addition to kimonos.
The online store provides comprehensive English product descriptions, selling “comment?” brand stoles and other items for overseas markets.
Additionally, they work to improve recognition through cultural exchange activities overseas, such as participating in French exhibitions and holding solo exhibitions in Paris.
The workshop develops products that adapt traditional Edo Komon techniques to contemporary lifestyles, continuing efforts to convey the value of Japanese traditional dyeing technology to overseas customers. Multilingual support and cultural communication utilizing digital technology are attracting attention as an approach model for international development of traditional crafts.
Case Study 3: Zuikogama Kyoto Kiyomizu Store Achieving High Ratings Through English Guide Introduction
While the experience program itself is traditional pottery production, by carefully explaining historical background and the meaning of techniques in English, participants can gain deep understanding beyond mere pottery experiences.
Mori Toki Museum similarly provides English support for hand-building and painting experiences, popular with foreign individual and group customers.
Through these efforts, many high ratings such as “deepened understanding” and “became an unforgettable experience” are posted on TripAdvisor and Google reviews, creating a positive cycle where word-of-mouth brings in new customers.
Furthermore, as participants share experience scenes on social media, international recognition also improves, making it a representative example demonstrating that English guide introduction is an effective means of enhancing both experience value and brand value.
Key Considerations When Implementing English Support
While English support in traditional craft businesses demonstrates significant effects in attracting inbound customers, there are several considerations during implementation.
Simply increasing English notation is not sufficient; innovations to avoid mistranslations and cultural misunderstandings are essential.
Additionally, creating systems that reduce staff burden while maintaining quality is important.
Furthermore, experience design that allows customers to “feel they are receiving English support” is required. Here, we’ll organize considerations from three points: translation accuracy and expression innovations, staff education and operational systems, and cultural considerations and information dissemination.
Translation Accuracy and Expression Innovations
The most important consideration in English support is translation accuracy. Relying too heavily on literal translation not only fails to convey meaning correctly but can result in culturally unnatural expressions that damage customer experience.
Particularly, specialized terminology and historical background in traditional crafts are areas where Japanese nuances must be carefully explained to avoid misunderstandings.
Therefore, requesting professional translators or incorporating native checks is desirable.
Additionally, avoiding complex terminology and using plain, friendly expressions is important.
By combining with photos and illustrations for visual supplementation, language barriers can be further lowered. Translation should be designed not as mere “Englishing” but as “cultural introduction that reaches the other party.”
Staff Education and Operational System Development
English support depends not only on notation preparation but also on on-site response capability.
Even if booking and inquiries are possible in English, customer satisfaction decreases if on-site staff cannot respond.
Therefore, providing basic English conversation education to staff and sharing frequently asked questions and explanations as phrase collections is effective.
Additionally, by utilizing AI translation tools or interpreter apps, operation can be stabilized while lowering response hurdles.
Furthermore, clearly designating staff responsible for English support prevents confusion.
During implementation, how to establish operational systems usable in actual on-site situations, along with securing translation resources, becomes an important success factor.
Balance of Cultural Consideration and Information Dissemination
When implementing English support, cultural consideration is essential beyond mere language conversion.
Japanese traditional crafts have unique backgrounds and values, and appropriate information design is necessary to convey them correctly.
For example, when explaining religious or historical elements of lacquerware or textiles, it’s important to consider the other party’s cultural background and choose words that avoid misunderstandings.
Additionally, by avoiding excessive specialized terminology and introducing as simple stories, deeper empathy becomes easier to obtain.
Furthermore, in English dissemination on social media and OTAs, conveying “narrativity” without disregarding cultural background is effective.
English support incorporating cultural consideration enriches customer experience and becomes the foundation for enhancing brand value.
Conclusion
English support in traditional craft businesses is an effective initiative directly connected to inbound market expansion.
However, during implementation, not mere translation but innovations to correctly convey cultural background and developing on-site operational systems are essential.
By combining ensuring translation accuracy, reliable support through staff education, and information dissemination based on cultural consideration, customer satisfaction and brand value significantly improve.
English support is simultaneously a “customer attraction tool” and carries the cultural role of internationally promoting Japanese crafts.
Through careful and strategic implementation, sustainable growth and establishment of competitive advantage can be achieved.
