From April 1st to May 31st, students in Professor Yamada Kosei's seminar Faculty of Service Innovation held the "Ichikawa Bingo" campaign, where they could enjoy walking around the city and playing bingo.
The seminar was requested by Ichikawa City to conduct an image survey of the city in 2021. Throughout 2022, the seminar has been proposing initiatives to revitalize Ichikawa City. This time, "Ichikawa Bingo," which involves visiting eight tourist spots in the city and trying to get bingo, was selected from the proposals and implemented with the cooperation of the Ichikawa City Tourism Association.
In preparation for the event, the students devised the rules and mission content, selected locations, negotiated permission to use facilities, prepared prizes, created flyers and posters, and obtained permission from JR East and Keisei Electric Railway stations to put up the posters.
Participants in the campaign will travel around Ichikawa City using a bingo sheet with a mission spot assigned to each square and the "Ichikawa City Tourism Guidebook" published by the Ichikawa City Tourism Association as a guide. At each mission spot, participants will take a photo of their marked bingo card along with the mission and post it on Instagram in an attempt to get a bingo. If participants get a complete bingo, they will be entered into a lottery to win prizes such as gift certificates.
During the campaign period, students spread the word about the bingo project on social media, and about 30 people participated in the campaign.
In order to make the event enjoyable, we held meetings and preparations late into the night, but seeing participants' posts on social media saying they had fun made me feel glad that we held the event. I also realized that the staff in Ichikawa City's Tourism Promotion Division and at each mission spot care about the history, flora and fauna of the area. Next time we plan and hold an event, we will use this experience and reflections to thoroughly adjust the schedule and improve our PR methods.
Yuna Kakizaki, 4th year, Faculty of Service Innovation (Yuzawa High School)