How can Palmerston North market itself better in Japan

As regular readers of my blog will know, I was born, bred and educated in Palmerston North, New Zealand. I have also lived the last 15 years of my life in Japan. So I am qualified to talk from both points of view. How should Palmerston North market itself better for the Japanese market?

Here are my ideas:

1. The city council or the people that do the marketing for tourism need to have a Japanese language website. I wrote Palmerston North in Japanese into the google search engine and the first site was the Wikipedia Japanese page. The next one was someone's tour diary and the third one was a generic tourist one. Not necessarily for Palmerston North but for New Zealand.

2. Palmerston North needs to market itself as the City of Knowledge. I know in the 1990's, Palmerston North was marketed as the City of Knowledge and for good reason. I know that Massey University and IPC would do their own marketing but can they combine forces with the city to market as one, or are they in competition with each other?

3. Palmerston North needs to combine with the rugby academy to get Japanese rugby players here. I know that they probably have many Japanese players already but imagine what it would be like for Palmerston North to be known as the home of rugby in New Zealand.

4. For about three or four years while I was living in Japan I would entertain a teacher from a high school in Palmerston North. He was on a tour in Asia trying to recruit students for his school. I'm not sure if the other high schools do this but is it possible for the schools of this area to collaborate and to enhance the city of Knowledge theme by saying that Palmerston North is the place to get a high school education?

5. Palmerston North needs to market itself as the English language capital of New Zealand. The city that you can come to and it is cheap to live and you can learn English in a great environment. Some Japanese people pay big money to learn English so why can't Palmerston North get a slice of that pie?

6. Farm stays are popular amongst Japanese tourists and this is one way to get tourists to come to the Manawatu. I know that there are numerous diary farms in this area. I'm sure that tourists would love the opportunity to stay for a couple of nights and help with milking in the mornings. This is something that may not be done in downtown Tokyo and I think that the tourists would love it.

7. How can Palmerston North and the Manawatu use their windmills to market to the Japanese population? This is something that is rare in Japan with it's reliance on nuclear power, although in saying that, nuclear power for obvious reasons seem to be on the way out in the land of the rising sun, so Palmerston North could market itself as the clean power of New Zealand, so why don't you come and see the windmills? It could be interesting. Actually come to think of it, I haven't been up to the windmills yet. Maybe I should.

8. Golf!!! There are some interesting golf courses in and around the Palmerston North area. Japanese tourists could base themselves in Palmerston North and play a different course over a 5 day to a week period. They could start at Manawatu, then go to Rangitira, maybe play at Apiti. That course is unique with the small fences around the greens to keep the grazing sheep out. Possible other courses could be Rangitikei with the last round being at awesome courses like Cape Kidnappers or Paraparaumu.

9. Baseball is the number one sport in Japan. It is covered on television every day during the season and millions of fans go to the stadiums during the season. However in the winter Japan as you can imagine it gets quite cold and baseball, although played can be quite uncomfortable in the cold. Do you think if the proper facilities were built, a Japanese team or a number of Japanese teams would come to train in our summer? This idea is out of left field, so to speak but it is doable. Pardon the pun.

10. Finally, why don't we market Palmerston North as what it is, a stable, middle of the road, real New Zealand town with education, sporting and tourist opportunities? That sounds quite boring but that is what it is. Take it or leave it.