[Date & Time] Friday, December 9, at 14:00~15:30
[Place] Hotel Sea Paradise Inn at Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise
[Participants] 20 Thai travel agents and 16 Japanese travel agents
[Participants] 20 KSGG members
[Place] Hotel Sea Paradise Inn at Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise
[Participants] 20 Thai travel agents and 16 Japanese travel agents
[Participants] 20 KSGG members
After the greetings of a representative of Thai travel agents and a chief of Tourism Division in Kanagawa Prefectural Government, the Thai agents moved to the table where the Japanese agents were seated and did some business talks one after another. Since Assistant Director of Sales in a hotel in Yokohama spoke fluent English, he didn’t need any interpreters who speak English. He talked business with five Thai travel agents, all of whom didn’t know Yokohama at all. After the Travel Mart was over, I asked the other KSGG members how the business negotiations had proceeded. They said that people working in hotels were generally good speakers of English and that they needed no interpreters but Thai interpreters. Therefore most KSGG members didn’t know what to do as interpreters. However, only when some Japanese agents were not used to business talks with foreign travel agents, KSGG members could play an active part as interpreters. I keenly realized that our role would be to work as not only interpreters but also supporters for Yokohama, Kamakura, and Fuji-Hakone with nice photos.