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Japan Tourism Awards appraised Kaunas city

The third Japan Tourism Award organized by the Japan Travel Organizers Association (JATA) for the first time mentioned the name of Kaunas city. The Japan’s largest exposition centre “Tokyo Big Sight” held an award ceremony which was dedicated to the original map, presenting the memory of diplomat Chiune Sugihara in Kaunas.
“It‘s Kaunastic”, a map in Japanese released in 2016 September, is targeted at tourists to present Kaunas in an unusual and unexpected way. These maps received immediate recognition among tourists from Japan whose numbers are rapidly increasing in Kaunas. Therefore, in a short period of time the English version of the rich map of illustrations and texts was released, in addition, in 2017, on the occasion of the first “Sugihara Week” in September, the illustrated diplomat‘s life was presented in Lithuanian.
“A few months ago, we received a letter from JATA in which the organization was inviting us to participate in the tourism awards’ competition in the category of regions. In the invitation, the Japanese highlighted Kaunas city’s opportunities to participate and be valued for existing historical ties and active marketing”, Inga Pažereckaitė-Kalėdienė stated, head of the Tourism Department of Kaunas City tourism and international marketing agency “Kaunas IN”, in Kaunas city municipality.
Japan Tourism Awards were dedicated not only to overlook domestic tourism market in Japan, but also to enjoy international relations. General acknowledgment was also given to Lithuania, Latvia as well as Estonia. Furthermore, out of many European countries, France was acknowledged as well.
The award-winning map was issued by the agency “Kaunas IN” established by Kaunas City Municipality. This institution that is responsible for the attraction of tourists and the international marketing of Kaunas city has also issued maps of “It’s Kaunastic” dedicated to the Kaunas gastronomic world and the introduction of the Litvak heritage. The idea of “It’s Kaunastic” was highly estimated in 2017 LOGIN awards.