CASE STUDY
Musubi’s work isn’t tourism strategy on paper.
We go into the field, build trust with local operators, and shape — in practice — the flow by which travellers are welcomed in.
CASE
01.
The Koga Model:
a Region’s “Capacity to Guide,” Proven as Structure
A grounded practice of high-value inbound travel in the region since 2020
Since 2020, in Koga, Ibaraki, Musubi has built deep trust with the people who carry the region's culture, craft and livelihood — among them the 190-year-old Aoki Sake Brewery; “Kimono no Takumi,” a kimono-tailoring atelier whose master holds the Medal with Yellow Ribbon; and HARIO, whose glassware is made in Koga.
On that foundation, rather than relying on any single guide's knowledge or language skills, we built a structure in which the city, the prefecture, the regional DMO, experience operators, interpreter-guides and the custodians of culture all move as one path of welcome — a region-wide capacity to guide.
The Japan Tourism Agency selected this practice as the only case nationwide in the high-value-travel field, for its Knowledge Compendium for Diversifying Visitor Attraction.
The practice itself became the philosophical foundation and practical theory of Ibaraki’s high-value inbound strategy.
Today the same model is applied in regions across Japan, from the capital region to the mountain villages.
Key Local Partners
Aoki Sake Brewery
HARIO (Koga plant, known for heat-resistant glass)
Kimono no Takumi (kimono Tailoring Master, Medal with Yellow Ribbon)
Local century-old companies, craftspeople and custodians of culture
Aoki Sake Brewery
HARIO
Kimono no Takumi
CASE
02.
“As It Truly Is,” Value Recognized by the World’s Leading Hotel Concierge Judges
Not a crafted experience, but the unembellished life of a community — and that was what leading five-star hotel chief concierges valued
In February 2020, Musubi invited the chief concierges of Japan’s leading five-star hotels (Les Clefs d’Or Japan) to Koga for a familiarization tour.
The centerpiece — a dawn hot-air balloon — was cancelled in heavy fog.
What we showed them instead wasn’t spectacle, but the resolve to judge and prioritize safety first.
Trust is born not in fair weather, but in the midst of trouble.
What the concierges valued was not a crafted experience, but the unembellished life of the region itself.
That regard did not stay in words.
One of the chief concierges on the tour resolved to feature the Koga program in her own hotel’s brochure (The pandemic that followed soon after put those plans on hold — the moment is still waiting to be carried forward.)
“Even in a countryside area like Koga, Ibaraki, it holds its own in the world” — that was the moment it was proven.
This regard stands as an emblem Musubi holds dear: “We don’t design visits. We design inclusion.”
In a chief concierge’s words
“What was wonderful wasn’t having a crafted experience imposed on us- it was being able to experience the unembellished work and life of the community.”
CASE
03.
Practice That Travels
Turning the welcome cultivated in Koga into a structure other regions can reproduce
At the request of municipalities and DMOs, Musubi has run trainings across the country for local operators and guides.
From hosting trainings for local experience operators to guide development in Tsukuba, Lake Biwa and the Shimanami Kaidō.
In each case, fitted to the field at hand,— Musubi teaches how to host discerning travelers and how to build a region’s capacity to guide.
One question has come up again and again in training: how do you make results that rest on a single practitioner's individual skill reproducible by others?
That question became the starting point for Guideability itself — the shift from thinking of guiding as individual talent, to treating it as a structural condition that belongs to the region.
Participants who arrive with almost no background in hosting travellers often leave feeling they can put what they've learned to work in their own field. Satisfaction rates of 100% for operator training and 81% for guide training — "very satisfied" plus "satisfied," in each case — reflect that response.
The practice belongs to no single person; it opens into something that a region can carry forward on its own.
Training and development
Workshops for local operators (Shizuoka City and elsewhere)
Guide development in Tsukuba, Lake Biwa, and the Shimanami Kaidō
Advisory for municipalities and DMOs