Digital

According to the JTB Tourism Research & Consulting’s survey, the ratio of people who use a smartphone for booking or purchasing travel contents is 60% or higher, 3.3 higher points than a year ago.

GetYourGuide co-founders, Johannes Reck and Tao Tao talked about the Japanese market and partnership with suppliers, expecting that Japan continues being one of the most popular destination on its platform.

tripla, a Japanese IT solution provider for accommodation, has started offering a new connectivity hub function, allowing the accommodation reservation engine "tripla Book," which has been deployed mainly in Japan, to connect with overseas reservation management systems.

Kyoto City and DMO KYOTO opened a portal site ‘LINK! LINK! LINK!’ for Kyoto citizen as one of the efforts to increase public sympathy for tourism.

JR East will launch a corporate co-creation platform service in January 2025 that will link JR EAST digital pass Suica with digital services from various companies and other organizations to provide personalized services.

JAL and NEC demonstrated the ‘NEC Baggage Counting Solution,’ in which AI is used to automatically analyze the quantity and types of carry-on baggage, to avoid flight delay.

Canon Marketing Japan is sending stories about Japan Heritage certified by Agency for Cultural Affairs (ACA), posting short movies titled ‘Everyday Japan Heritage’ on ACA official SNS.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) issued 20 kinds of ink painting NFTs featuring local landmarks in 10 regions as one of the efforts in Osaka Kansai EXPO 2025 promotions.

Uber will begin dispatching taxies on the Uber app in Hakuba Village, Nagao Prefecture in the limited winter season to improve conveniences for international visitors who are used to use the Uber app.

LINE Yahoo, the biggest communication app provider, revealed the next phase of the seamless service platform ‘Connect One’ concept for its business clients at LINE Yahoo BIZ Conference 2024.

Narita International Airport and Hong Kong International Airport demonstrated and succeeded in completing digital travel procedures for round-trip travel, using Hong Kong Airport's 'Flight Token' and Narita Airport's 'Face Express'

JTB and Singapore Airlines started working together for new price-seeking tours using the airline’s NDC channel. The first collaboration tours for Singapore have been sold since November 18.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has begun digital promotions for ‘EXPO + Tourism, encouraging JNTO website visitors to visit the ‘EXPO + Tourism’ tour booking website, and delivering NFTs featuring nature, foods or cultures in 10 regions.

NEC, Klook and Maruwa Transportation will begin offering ‘Travel Light’ service combining pre-checkin of a hotel with baggage delivery from an airport as one of the solution service against over-tourism.

A digital tourism PR booth was set up at Kansai International Airport to encourage international tourists to visit local areas in western Japan before Osaka Kansai EXPO opens in April 2025.

JAL has started video streaming services on the domestic flights and Inflight Wi-Fi services unlimitedly for the first and business classes and free in a hour for the premium economy and economy classes.

Cruise Planet, a Japan’s cruise travel OTA, launched a BtoB booking system ‘NAVIS’ for travel agents, which enables travel agents to grasp cabin availability at a glance and book available cabins immediately.

NAVITIME Japan, a leading navigation app provider, has started offering a generative AI-based travel planning function on a web service for inbound travelers to Japan.

Resorttrust, a Japanese hotel operation firm, will begin a demonstration program to propose personalized wellness activities in their hotels by analyzing the peripheral blood circulation of guests.

Tobu Railway and Hitachi are gradually introducing a biometric authentication-based digital identity platform in 100 or more commercial facilities. They expects to to expand opportunities to use the service, probably passing through a railway gate, in the future.