News
Eight railways in Kanto area transfer magnetic ticket to QR-code ticket on the companies-cross system
Eight railway companies in Tokyo Metropolitan area will transfer the current magnetic ticket to QR-code ticket on the companies-cross system step by step after 2026.
Total sales of 43 Japanese major travel companies in March recovered to a 6% decrease over 2019
Sales of 43 major travel companies in March 2024 were down 6.1% to 421.2 billion JPY compared to the same month of 2019. Sales in overseas travel were up 65.6% year on year to 116.7 billion JPY, but the result was still down 33.1% compared to March 2019.
A Japanese traveler spent 13% more money for domestic travel in Q1 of 2024 than 2019
The total amount of Japanese travel consumption was up 11.8% year on year to 4.6 trillion JPY in the 1st quarter of 2024, 3.8 trillion JPY for overnight trips (up 16.0% over 2019) and 99 million JPY for day trips (up 2.9% over 2019).
ANA travel body starts selling dynamic package tours using other airlines’ flights than ANA
ANA X has started selling tours for overseas destinations with no ANA scheduled flights by using other flights than ANA, such as Guam by United Airlines or Seoul by Asiana Airlines.
International Tourism Trade Show Tokyo became a new opportunity for the tourism industry of Japan to share knowledge about Wellness and DX
International Tourism Trade Show 2024 was held in Tokyo Big Sight for three days from May 8th to 10th as a new BtoB tourism event, organizing the 2nd International Wellness Tourism EXPO and the first Tourism Marketing EXPO.
Visitors from Taiwan and Hong Kong to Japan are more interested in what Japanese people eat at home, paying attention to local supermarkets
More than 90% of visitors from Taiwan and Hong Kong want to buy foods as dinner in department stores or supermarkets in traveling in Japan.
WiT Japan 2024 shares knowledge of how to use GenAI for travel among travel-tech companies in Aisa
WiT Japan & North Aisa 2024 with a theme of ‘The Human Revolution’ on May 13 2024 particularly shared knowledge of how to use GenAI for travel.
A pre-booking program for Mt. Fuji will be launched in July 2024, giving climbers wristbands for qualification
Yamanashi Prefecture will introduce a pre-booking program to collect admission fees from climbers to Mt.Fuji on July 1 2024. The prefecture placed a gate in the Mt. Fuji fifth entrance station to collect admission fees this year.
Trip.com received more travel bookings from China to Japan in Q1 of 2024 than 2019, increasing travelers to local areas
Trip.com received more travel bookings from mainland China to Japan in the first quarter of 2024 than the same period of 2019, and bookings in local areas of Japan have increased.
Japanese outbound travelers in April 2024 still remained half of April 2019
The number of Japanese outbound travelers was down 46.7% to 888,800 in April 2024 compared to the same month 2019.
International visitors to Japan exceeded 3 million in April 2024 for two months in a row, already reaching 10 million in total
The number of international visitors to Japan in April 2024 was up 4.0% to 3,042,900 compared to the same month of 2019. For the first four months of 2024. the total already reached 11.6 million visitors in total.
Foreigners’ guest nights in Japan were up 33% in March 2024 compared to pre-pandemic
The total number of guest nights in March 2024 (provisionally) was up 8.2% year on year to 54.9 million, which consisted of 42.2 million Japanese guests (up 1.3%) and 12.7 million foreigners' guests (up 33.4%).
A Japanese railway operator in Kansai area sells digital ticket on smartphone for WeChat Pay users of China
Kintetsu Railway will sell digital tickets for the lines between Osaka Nanba or Kyoto and Nara to WeChat Pay users of China on WeChat mini program, working together with Linktivity.
Narita Airport tests the face recognition boarding process on a passenger’s smartphone in linkage with ANA and JAL apps
The face recognition boarding process ‘Face Express’ on a passenger’s smartphone was tested at Narita Airport, linking the app with ANA and JAL apps.
South Korea’s unicorn OTA earnestly sets out to exploit accommodation partners in Japan
GC Company, a South Korea’s unicorn OTA, has earnestly begun exploiting accommodation partners in Japan with a goal of annual transactions of about 110 billion yen for businesses in Japan by 2028.
Marriott renovates 14 UNIZO Holdings’ hotels in Japan to Four Points Express by Sheraton, the first brand in APAC
14 UNIZO Holdings’ hotels in Japan will be renovated to Four Points Express by Sheraton. They will be the first Four Points Express by Sheraton brand in APAC.
Popularity of ‘Pets Tourism’ is rising in Japan, as two-thirds of dog owners hope to travel with their pets
63% of dog owners hope to travel together with their dogs. The ratio of owners who are eager to travel with their pets (except owners who want to if possible) reduced to about 10% of all.
85% of travel and hospitality business operators in Japan are forced to limit their operation hours due to labour shortage
85% of travel and hospitality business operators in Japan were forced to limit their operation hours due to labour shortage. The hospitality industry has struggled with their operations, such as reduce in operation days (51%).
Japanese remote workers in Tokyo remain 40% with more hybrid-typed works combing with coming into office
The ratio of employed remote workers in Japan decreased from 26.1% in FY2022 to 24.8% in FY2023. In Tokyo Metropolitan area, the ratio remained about 40%.
JAL achieved considerable increases in both revenue and profit for FY2023, carrying 1.5 times more international flight passengers
JAL increased revenue by 20.1% year on year to 1652 billion yen for FY 2023 ended March 31 2024, 19.2% more than even FY2019, carrying 1.5 times more international flight passengers.
