We don’t just provide a trip around famous sightseeing spots. We want to offer trips that thoroughly take in local areas, through exchanges with people and first-hand experiences.

Good idea.

It's a good idea, but they need to CLEARLY spell out the costs and exactly what they are doing and when before they take on customers, and they can't just wrap this into another tour. A woman I know tried to start a tour through a local company that took people on a cycling trip in Hiroshima (maybe the same company!), but they had to stop and stay in her home town for the better part of two days. The highlights? They got to pick chestnuts at the owners behest, and then go shopping at the town's two or three local shops, followed by a BBQ of the things they bought, and they could stay in her old house overnight. She said she wanted people to see her small town, and wanted to bring it business because no one goes there. The cost of the "additional" tour ended up being most of the cost, and she did NOT get nice comments on her questionnaires, and even had to pay back all of the money she got for that part of the trip. She later asked me how she could improve it to appeal to foreigners, giving me a breakdown of what she did and what she wanted to do. I apologised, sighed, and said there was nothing at all interesting that would appeal to foreign tourists coming to Japan. I did say that she could advertise it as a getaway in rural Hiroshima for foreigners who lived and worked in cities, who might like the change of pace, but that was it. She has not talked to me since.

My point is that these companies and people need to stop thinking others will want what they THINK they should want, and get real advice BEFOREHAND, and take the advice to heart from people who engage in any of the activities, without taking it personally if it is criticism.