Japan is a magical place, really, where grown-ups can love kiddy cartoon characters without being embarrassed. And that's the angle Japan is about to use to promote itself to potential visitors from China and Hong Kong, because like the Japanese, they also love Hello Kitty.

Yep, the cartoon cat has just become an official tourism ambassador. It's all part of the simply-named "Visit Japan" campaign that hopes to increase tourist numbers to 10 million a year from the 8.35 million that visited last year.

It seems a pity, almost, that a country so rich in interesting culture and history resorts to a thirty-something-year-old cartoon kitty to bring in the tourists, but if it works, it works. And we admit we'd be persuaded to return to Japan if we got a free Hello Kitty key chain at passport control.

Related Stories:
· Hello Kitty Named Japan Tourism Ambassador [MSNBC]
· Japan Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: colodio]]]> amandak 2008-05-20T09:30:02-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/2/12/131427/279

We were on the way home from our geeky weekend in Philadelphia when we cell phone snapped this ad. It's touting the new Take Pity on Me! contest from the Scottsdale Convention and Visitors Bureau.

If you find yourself buried under snow, frozen and fatigued, Scottsdale can help. The CVB is giving away a four-day trip to Southern Arizona. All you have to do is submit a photo or video of you suffering from the winter blues.

Starting March 3, the top 10 photos and top 10 videos will go online and website visitors will pick the best of the best. Our advice? Go all out for this thing. No video has ever been a smash-hit on the web thanks to its being unoriginal and boring. Let us know if you enter, and we'll vote for you!

Related Stories:
· Scottsdale Take Pity on Me! contest [Official Site]
· Scottsdale Spas coverage [Jaunted]
· Tourism Marketing coverage [Jaunted]]]> pbb 2008-02-12T13:15:13-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/