Digital

VELTRA, a Japanese local experience booking platform, signed a business partnership with MSC Cruises to launch a cruise booking platform ‘VELTRA Cruise.’

The Future City Pavilion of EXPO 2025 Osaka, Kansai was completed. 12 Japanese leading manufacturers and organizations showcases their innovations for the future society.

NAVITIME JAPAN, a Japan’s leading navigation app provider, began linking to Omio in Europe, which allows NAVITIME Transit users to book and purchase train tickets in U.K., Italy and Spain.

Tokyo Metro will start a new service to enable a passenger to get on subway with touch payment of credit card or QR code for 24-hours digital ticket, using e-ticket booking platform Linktivity’s scheme.

ANA and U.S.-based OTA Hopper have begun selling ANA tickets through IATA’s leading New Distribution Capability (NDC), powered by Ireland-based Openjaw Technologies and delivered through Travelfusion, a major content aggregator.

‘Linktivity,’ a BtoB e-ticket booking platform of Japan, started dealing with ‘Shanghai Pass,’ transportation pass in Shanghai on global 400 OTAs, including Japanese OTAs, connecting to Linktivity.

Klook, a Hong Kong-based local experience booking platform, raised funds of $100 million to expand partnership with Google Cloud in the AI development and to collaborate with local tourism authorities.

Japan ticket, an e-ticket management system provider for international travelers to Japan, has started connecting with Klook to allow users to book tourism experiences provided by Japan ticket on the Klook platform.

JR West, a railway company of Japan, has begun connecting online and ticketless booking services ‘Express Booking’ and ‘Smart EX’ with the route search on Apple Map.

JTB and Airbnb Japan have agreed to work together for reuse of abandoned houses to receive travelers in local regions, having a goal of developing the areas in 100 regions nationwide by 2028.

JTB CEO Eijiro Yamakita talked about a business strategy in 2025 at a partner event ‘JTB Group New Year Partnership Meeting 2025,’ redefining its big picture of ‘Bringing People, Places and Possibilities Together. He said, “As AI is evolving rapidly, we have to rethink about values of people.”

AI-based travel planning service ‘Hako Tabi’ is available in Hakone, a famous onsen resort in Japan, developed by a University of Tokyo startup ‘EasyX’ and local Hakone DMO.

A new online medical treatment service ‘Hotel de Doctor 24’ for foreigners staying in a hotel who are concerned about health conditions during traveling in Japan is ready for operation.

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.