Japan Bound

NAVITIME Japan has launched linkage of ‘Japan Travel NAVITIME,’ a navigation app for inbound travelers, with Uber taxi app. A taxi can be dispatched without re-inputting riding location and a destination.

The number of inbound cruise travelers was 356,000 in 2023, which was 14% of the peak in 2017. The total number of cruise part calls in Japan increased by 2.5 times year on year to 1,854, which recovered to 63% of the peak in 2018.

This year's cherry blossom season is expected to start blooming first in Tokyo on March 18, according to Weathernews. Full blooming will be earlier than usual nationwide.

Peter Kern, Vice Chairman and CEO Expedia Group visited Japan, celebrating the18th anniversary of staring its service in Japan. Expedia is developing a new campaign exclusively for Japan, renaming its global branding message ‘Made to Travel’ to ‘Itsumo no Soto.'

Niigata, Toyama and Fukui Prefectures have decided to receive bookings for financial aid package on March 8 2024. The package will be applicable to travel from March 16 to April 26.

The number of international visitors to Japan in January 2024 was 2,688,1000, almost the same number as January 2019. Visitors from 10 source markets reached record-high for January.

‘FUN! JAPAN,' a community website for Asian travelers to Japan, launched a new SNS, which is a service for community members to enjoy conversations with simultaneous translation.

The total number of guest nights in December 2023 (provisionally) was up 9.4% year on year to 51.5 million, which were also up 9.3% compared to the same month of 2019. Foreigner travelers were up 32.3% to 12.1 million.

Asia-Pacific Institute of Research (APIR) estimated spending by visitors to EXPO 2025 Osaka Kansai at 891.3 billion JPY in a basic case, which of 224 billion JPY for transportation, 173.5 billion JPY for accommodation, 161.9 billion JPY for drinking and eating, 186.7 billion JPY for shopping and 145 billion JPY for entertainment.

JTB and Asahi Breweries, a Japanese leading brewery company, have started a collaboration project to create high-quality entertainments and tourism services in the nighttime for inbound travelers.

Narita International Airport passengers in 2023 was up 12% year on year to 32.7 million, out of which international flight passengers were up 77% to 25 million. Inbound travelers were up 270% year on year to 16 million (down 12% over 2019).

ANA has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Trip.com Group to increase travelers from China to Japan, opening a flagship shop and deliver LIVE commerce on Trip.com website and app.

According to Booking.com, among top 10 destinations that are still unknown but are getting popularity among Asian travelers, Japanese regions ranks 3rd to 10th. Top was Camariñas in Spain, followed by Mexico, Missouri, USA.

Spending in Japan by international travelers in 2023 increased by 9.9% to record-high 5,292 billion JPY compared to 2019. Taiwan was the top source market with 778.6 billion JPY.

The number of international visitors in Japan 2023 reached 25,066,100, almost 80% of the result in 2019 (31,882,049), adding 2,734,000 in December 2023. Compared to 2022, more than 20 million increased at once.

185 famous restaurants in Kyoto City offer respective winter-limited menus with their transparent price ranges espeically for inbound travelers.

Total number of guest nights in November 2023 (provisionally) was up 16.9% year on year to 53.6 million, which were up 7.9% compared to the same month of 2019. The share of foreigners’ guest nights was 22.8% of the total in October.

Tokyo Metro and YAMAHA will begin testing a new multi-language service ‘Visualized Announcement’ transcribing voice announcements in a station on a smartphone.

BRIDGE MULTILINGUAL SOLUTIONS has provided ‘free telephone interpretation service’ for foreigners living in Japan who have devastated by Noto Peninsula earthquake.

JTB has forecasted that the number of Japanese travelers in 2024 are expected to reach 287.5 million, and the number of inbound travelers will reach the most-ever 33.1 million, 31.3% more than a year ago or 3.8% more than 2019.