Two months on, Osaka Expo organizer struggles to improve experience as crowds grow

Japan Times

a day ago

A three-hour wait to enter the U.S. exhibit. A snaking lineup at a hot dog stand. A dozen people lingering outside the Austrian pavilion — which was already at capacity — just for the opportunity to enter the line.
Mere months ago, the prevailing narrative around the Osaka Expo was that the event was on track to be a box office bomb amid low public interest and slower-than-expected ticket sales.
Now, two months after the expo's gates opened on Osaka's Yumeshima island, organizers have a different problem on their hands: how to improve the guest experience despite swelling attendance figures.
'I wanted to go in,' said Noriko Moriguchi, who visited last Saturday, while looking at the long lines for the U.S. and France pavilions from the Grand Ring. 'But I guess it won't be possible.'
'We couldn't get any reservations,' added her partner Tatsuya. 'So I guess we'll just go to the less busy pavilions.'
With a third of the expo's scheduled runtime now in the books, momentum appears to be building toward what organizers hope will be a boom period for the event as they try to recoup ballooning costs via ticket sales.
'The expo is a very rare occasion where people globally join forces and to showcase each country's specialties, therefore we want as many people as possible to come,' Osaka Expo Secretary-General Hiroyuki Ishige said during a news conference on Monday when asked about a cap on the number of visitors. 'The visitors who come to the expo should be happy and fully satisfied with their experiences and that's what we will do.'
Visitors rest under the Grand Ring during the Osaka expo on May 21. |
AFP-JIJI
Expo officials had set a goal of attracting 28.2 million visitors, which equates to about 154,000 people per day over the course of its 183-day run.
Before its opening in April, the expo looked like it would fall well short of that mark.
Over the first seven days of the event, an average of 91,410 people attended, and even that relatively low number was buoyed by a robust 146,426 people visiting on a rainy opening day.
Through June 7, however, the daily average had risen to 124,182, while an average of 146,647 visited in the week starting June 1. Those figures include people entering with accreditation passes, which accounted for about 14% of the 6,830,053 visitors through June 7.
Particularly after advance ticket sales only reached about 70% of their target, local organizers and officials from the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions, which organizes World Expos, pinned their hopes on word-of-mouth and a late rush of visitors in the event's final weeks.
'Every expo starts slowly and by the last month people are trying to jump through the gates in order to get a chance to see it,' BIE Secretary-General Dimitri S. Kerkentzes told reporters in January. 'If you want a comfortable visit to the expo ... come at the beginning, come in the first three months.'
But even before the expo reaches its peak attendance, some visitors are already growing weary of the long lines at everything from food stalls and souvenir shops to pavilions.
'It's a three, four, five hour wait (for some pavilions),' said Italy native Antonio Cianci, who was among the 173,305 people to visit last Saturday. 'It's impossible.'
Crowds line up for events at various pavilions during the 2025 Osaka Expo in May. |
AFP-JIJI
The issue isn't lost on organizers, even as the expo rolls out new television ads in a bid to attract even bigger crowds.
'We are happy that there are many visitors here and we hope to have some more visitors because we have more events coming every day, but we have to make sure that everybody is safe and comfortable so I think that's our challenge,' said Sachiko Yoshimura, the director of global public relations for the Osaka Expo.
The reservation system for popular pavilions and events has long been criticized for being too complicated and difficult to use, while on-site registrations could only be made after entering the expo site. High web traffic has also brought the booking system to a crawl at various times. In response, organizers have promised to improve the performance of the reservation system and facilitate more on-site bookings.
They're also encouraging more people to use the west entry gate, which is accessible by bus or private car, to reduce congestion at the east gate outside Osaka Metro's Yumeshima Station.
Even with those measures in place — including an expanded twilight entry period to encourage people to visit later in the day — it's hard to imagine the lines for the most popular pavilions will get much shorter.
In addition to limited space inside the pavilions, some, like the U.S. pavilion, are conducted as a tour with only a certain number of people allowed in for each showing.
Visitors rest under the Grand Ring during the Osaka expo in the city of Osaka on May 21. |
AFP-JIJI
The importance of reservations is still catching some visitors off-guard, including those who have attended other expos and didn't have the same experience with lines.
'I went to the (2015) expo in Milan,' said Matteo Piras, who visited with Cianci. 'I didn't need any reservations. I was thinking it was the same (here), but no.'
Still, despite some vocal criticism on social media sites, data shows that visitors are broadly pleased with their expo experience.
In a survey conducted by the organizers of over 100,000 visitors to the expo through the end of April, 44% of respondents said they were satisfied with their experience and 35.7% said they were somewhat satisfied, compared to a combined rate of 9.4% who said they were somewhat dissatisfied or dissatisfied.
Even Piras and Cianci weren't exactly disappointed with their experience.
'The global vision is very beautiful,' Piras said.
Takeru Nakao was visiting for the second time last Saturday and, despite the long lineups, says he would recommend the expo.
'I haven't been to many foreign destinations, but here I can learn a lot because I come across them naturally just by walking around,' he said.
Swarms of midges have proved to be a major annoyance for visitors at Osaka expo in the evening, forcing organizers to form a task force to determine pest control measures. |
JIJI
Beyond crowd control, there are other sources of turbulence.
Swarms of midges have proved to be a major annoyance for visitors in the evening, forcing organizers to form a task force to determine pest control measures.
Meanwhile, the detection of high levels of Legionella bacteria in the seawater at the site's Water Plaza and in the Forest of Tranquility raised public health concerns and caused the cancellation of water shows, and in the face of criticism over the slow reaction to the problem, organizers acknowledged the response was insufficient.
Those issues might pale in comparison, however, to the impending risk posed by Japan's scorching summers.
Mist-cooling areas and spot air conditioners are being installed in anticipation of ever-increasing temperatures. |
Joel Tansey
Despite the shade provided by the Grand Ring and other buildings, the expo site is largely exposed to the elements and the large area means people expend a lot of energy getting from point A to point B, raising the risk of heatstroke.
Organizers have set up water stations and tents to ensure guests are hydrated and can escape the sun. There are also mist-cooling areas around the site and spot air conditioners are being installed in anticipation of ever-increasing temperatures.
Given the long lineups for many pavilions, sometimes in places directly exposed to the sun, it remains to be seen whether that will be enough.
'We're really trying to make improvements every day,' Yoshimura of Osaka Expo said. 'Of course Japan has these hot, humid summers every year ... We have the technology and know-how in Japan so we'd like to use that as much as possible.'