The Romantic Road, or die Romantische Straße, sounds as though there should be a long history or charming story attached to it. In fact it was created by local initiative in 1950 in the American Zone of Occupation of post-war Germany, in order to encourage American soldiers and their guests to visit a particularly pretty stretch of rural southern Germany. The road - actually not one single road but a route artificially created on a map - links attractive towns, castles and countryside along a 360 km route.

The target market was soon amended to include the (then) fledgling Japanese travel industry and measures were taken to encourage the Japanese to visit. These included:

• official promotional literature in Japanese
• marking the entire length of the road in German and Japanese language signs
• active marketing of the location within Japan

Nowadays in private tourism businesses such as hotels and shops, at least one of the German staff speaks Japanese. Signs display information in Japanese, Japanese menus are available, attractions offer Japanese tours, and both the website and official guide to the Romantic Road are fully available in the Japanese language.   

For over 50 years Japanese people have been visiting the region, returning home and passing on their experience of its "Japan Friendly" nature. Most British travellers are completely unfamiliar with the route, yet a staggering 93% of people within Japan have heard of the Romantic Road. This level of market penetration is an amazing success story for a quiet, predominantly agricultural region of southern Germany, located on the other side of the world from its source market. The Japanese tourism spend in Germany amounts to well over US$7 billion a year and the vast majority of these visitors spend some, or most, of their time on the Romantic Road.

Japanese visitor numbers to Germany have been in slight decline in recent years. By contrast the Chinese market showed a growth of almost 100% from 1994 to 2003 and nights spent by Chinese tourists represent half the entire (well established) Japanese market. In the light of these developments, tellingly the official guide to the Romantic Road has now been produced for the first time in a Chinese language version.