Photo= The tourist information center for foreigners established by Keihan Electric Railway Co., Ltd. and JTB Western Japan, Corp. Immediately after opening, users came by one after the other. (Kyoto Tower, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto)

On June 1, Keihan Electric Railway Co., Ltd. and JTB Western Japan, Corp. opened a tourist information center for foreigners on the third floor of the Kyoto Tower in Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto. Keihan Electric Railway has also announced their future plan for remodeling Kyoto Tower, in which the first floor entrance will be arch-shaped to attract more visitors.

These are parts of the efforts to make the tower a global center for tourists from home and abroad.

The information center is named "Kansai Tourist Information Center Kyoto." Its area is about 200 square meters. Six staff members provide assistance in Japanese, English and Chinese for making hotel reservations, restaurant recommendations and other services.

It has also started new services of temporary luggage holding and luggage delivery for a fee to hotels within Kyoto City, so that tourists can sightsee with their hands free. In addition, there is a prayer room for Muslims.

JTB Western Japan has opened similar information centers in Kansai Airport and on Shinsaibashi Street in Chuo Ward, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture. Each center will also introduce the others to enhance their mutual cooperation.

Keihan Electric Railway plans to begin the full remodeling of the lower part of Kyoto Tower from the spring of 2018. Yoshifumi Kato, Keihan's CEO and COO, attended the opening ceremony for the information center and said, "The building is still not so easy to enter, nor has it become the face of Kyoto yet, but in the future I would like to make it a spacious building with an arch that draws more people, like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris."