On Friday, January 12, the Alaska World Affairs Council “Around the World in 60 Minutes: Travel Tales & Advice from the Alaskan Consular Corps” was held at 49th State Brewing Company. The program featured a panel consisting of the following members of the Alaskan Consular Corps:
- Ms. Lise Falskow, Royal Norwegian Honorary Consul, who is also President and CEO of the Alaska World Affairs Council (moderator of the panel)
- Ms. Bonnie Melielo, Honorary Consul of Italy
- Dr. Diddy R.M. Hitchins PhD MBE, British Honorary Consul
- Mr. Masatoshi Sato, Head, Consular Office of Japan in Anchorage
- Ms. Ohkeum Kwon, Deputy Consul General, Republic of Korea
The five panelists talked about what they would recommend for visitors to their respective countries and suggested websites, books, or Facebook pages for people interested in travel to the countries.
Mr. Sato talked about some of Japan’s main tourist attractions and hoped that the participants in the program would visit Japan in the near future to take advantage of Japanese traditional hospitality – “Omotenashi” in Japanese – nurtured along the history of more than two thousand and six hundred years.
He also suggested the website of Japan National Tourism Organization – www.us.jnto.go.jp – and gave away hand-outs promoting tourism in Japan. Some of the hand-outs were produced by the municipalities that have sister-city relationship with a city or a borough in Alaska such as Akita, Chitose, Gero and Obihiro.