Travel Sectors
HIS saw a 25% increase in overseas travel bookings during New Year’s holiday period, and the most-booked destination is Seoul
HIS overseas travel bookings during the New Year’s holiday period (December 27 2024 to January 5 2025) were up 25.3% year on year. The most-booked destination was Seoul, followed by Taipei, Honolulu, Bangkok and Singapore.
JTB works together with Singapore Airlines for new tours using the airline’s NDC channel
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.
The first ‘Tourism Resilience Summit’ in APAC adopts ‘Sendai Statement’ to prevent and minimize crises and disasters caused by natural hazards
The first ‘Tourism Resilience Summit’ in APAC was held in Sendai City, joined by nine countries and seven international organizations, and adopted ‘Sendai Statement' on November 11 2024 to prevent and minimize crises and disasters caused by natural hazards.
Mitsui Fudosan of Japan will open a luxury hotel in a place associated with noble Mitsui Family, Hakone
Mitsui Fudosan and Mitsui Fudosan Resort Management will open its highest luxury brand ‘HOTEL THE MITSUI HAKONE’ in Hakone in 2026, located in Fuji Hakone Izu National Park.
Yamanashi Governor talks about the prefecture’s tourism visions, saying, “Make Mt.Fuji a world-standard tourism destination.”
Travel Voice interviewed Kotaro Nagasaki, Yamanashi Governor, to let him talk about the prefecture’s tourism visions and tourism policies including the Mt.Fuji climbing rule. Governor Nagasaki said, "Make Mt.Fuji a world-standard tourism destination.”
Riyadh Air, a Saudi Arabian startup airline, is ready for take-off next summer as one of the nation’s tourism strategies
Riyadh Air, established by a government-affiliated fund, plan to begin its services in the summer 2025. The startup airline is regarded as one of the Saudi Arabia’s tourism strategies.
JAL and Hoshino Resorts launch a joint campaign to introduce ‘a little-known but good destination’ for inbound travelers
JAL and Hoshino Resorts launched a joint campaign to introduce 'a little-known but good destinations’ in Japan on each of the owned media and offer dynamic package tours.
43 Japanese major travel companies still struggled with a 33% decrease in sales in August 2024 over 2019
Sales of 43 major travel companies in August 2024 were up 1.8% year on year to 323.4 billion JPY, but was still down 32.5% compared to the same month of 2019. Sales and customers of package tours continued reducing a lot.
Japan National Tourism Organization begins digital promotions for ‘EXPO + Tourism’ in earnest, including delivery of local NFTs
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.
‘Tourism Resilience Summit’ will be held in Sendai to discuss preparation for crisis and business continuity, joined by tourism ministers from APAC
Japan Tourism Agency of Japan will host ‘Tourism Resilience Summit’ in Sendai from November 9 to 11 2024 to share knowledge about strategies or plans of tourism resilience through symposiums and panel discussions.
Hoshino Resorts, a Japanese hotel chain, decides to open ‘onsen ryokan’ in U.S. in 2028, serving Japanese-style hospitality
Hoshino Resorts announced that the Japanese hotel chain will open Japanese-style ‘onsen ryokan’ in Sharon Spring, New York in 2028 as the first onsen ryokan, targeting wealthy travelers in North America.
Japanese Wi-Fi router rental launches a travel brand for inbound travelers with a tagline of ‘Explore Wonderland Japan’
Vision, a Wi-Fi router rental company of Japan, launched a travel brand ‘Japan Destinations’ as a destination management company (DMC) to provide seamless arrangement of hotel, activity, transportation and tour guide.
Cruise Planet, a Japan’s cruise travel OTA, launches a BtoB booking system for travel agents
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.
NTA, one of the Japan’s leading travel agents, aims to commercialize ‘space travel for everyone’ in tie-ups with a space industry startup
Nippon Travel Agency (NTA) and Innovative Space Carrier (ISC) signed a business partnership agreement for ‘space travel business for everyone,' expecting to commercialize the business in 2030s.
ANA sells the second ‘Airplane Graveyard’ tour to Victorville Airport in California, including inside stories by mechanics
ANA will organize ‘Four-days Los Angeles and Victorville Airport tour’ as the second tour of ‘Airplane Graveyard’ series, following Mojave Airport. You can get up close and personal with the many planes that once served the world.
Tourism EXPO Japan 2024, the Japan’s largest travel trade exhibition, showcases new travel values
Four-days Tourism EXPO Japan (TEJ) 2024 opened on September 26, 2024 at Tokyo Big Sight, organizing symposiums, seminars, exhibitions and business meetings for outbound travel, inbound travel and domestic travel.
HIS wins the highest customer satisfaction among Japanese travel companies, and ikyu.com among OTAs
According to the 2nd Japanese Customer Satisfaction Index (JCSI) in 2024, HIS won the highest customer satisfaction in the travel industry for the first time. HIS was top even for recommendation and touching indexes.
New Japanese tour operators who are affirmative to enter the inbound travel market have reduced mainly because of worker shortage
The ratio of new tour operators who are affirmative to receive inbound travelers reduced from 51% in the last survey to 44%, according to JATA survey. The top reason was ‘worker shortage’ (61%).
Tourism EXPO Japan 2024 opens on September 26 with more foreign exhibitors who want more Japanese outbound travelers
Four-days Tourism EXPO Japan (TEJ) 2024 will open in Tokyo Big Sight on September 26 2026, organizing TEJ Ministerial Round Table, a keynote panel discussion and so on. Exhibitions will be more than 1,500 booths, about 85% of the largest event in 2018.
Using the Murata Manufacturing’s technology, Resorttrust hotels of Japan analyzes guests’ health conditions to propose personalized wellness activities
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.
