News
New JATA Chairman says “Our mission is regeneration of tourism under a new normal era”
Hiroyuki Takahashi, who took office as Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) Chairman in December 2021, said at a New Year press conference, “My priority mission as JATA chairman is regeneration of tourism.”
The most popular internet services in Japan are Yahoo! Japan in users and YouTube in usage time
The top internet service was Yahoo! Japan with the reach rate of 68.9% a month, followed by Goggle with 65.1%, according to Nielsen Digital’s ‘Tops of 2021: Digital in Japan’ ranking.
Japanese guest nights recovered to a 13% reduction from pre-COVID-19 in November 2021
The total number of guest nights in November 2021 was down 3.8% year on year to 35.3 million, and the occupation rate was 46%, 0.7 higher points than a year ago than November 2020 or 20 lower points than November 2019.
JR EAST, a Japan’s railway company, launches an information site exclusively for Taiwaneses travelers to Japan
JR EAST launched ‘JR TIMES,’ an travel information site exclusively for Taiwanese travelers for the future, offering a cross-border EC function to sell limited local products in Japan.
JAL is committed to net zero emission in FY2050, launching ‘three arrows’ under its ESG management
JAL drew up the FY2021-FY2025 midterm management plan, for which one of business pillars is ‘ESG Strategy.’ Aiming at net zero emission in 2050, JAL is developing three arrows including expansion of flights using SAF.
HIS doubled its annual deficit to the worst 50 billion JPY for FY2021, expecting overseas travel demand recovery next summer
HIS posted a net loss of 50 billion JPY for FY2021 ended October 31 2021, doubling from the previous fiscal year. Hideo Sawada, HIS President said. “We expect that overseas travel demand may begin recovering the next summer.”
A Japanese professional baseball team will open a hotel with onsen inside of a new stadium
A new hotel with onsen will be opened inside of a new baseball stadium ‘ES CON Filed Hokkaido’ for Japanese professional baseball team Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
What are highlights in WiT Japan organized in January 2022 for the first time in the past two years?
WiT Japan & North Asia will be organized on January 14 and 15 2022 for the first time in the past two years. Kei Shibata and Aya Aso, WiT organizers, talked about highlight sessions they are interested in.
38% of hotels and ryokans in Japan say “We address SDGs,” while many of them lack know-how for concrete actions
90% of hotels and ryokans in Japan said that they should address SDGs, and 38.3% answered that they have already started to take some actions for SDGs. 32.8%, however, said that they have not addressed SDGs yet.
The travel willingness rate reaches the highest 67% in Japan and is higher in the spring except a Golden Week period
The latest Jalan Research Center’s survey finds that the travel willingness rate as of November 2021 reached 67.7%, the highest rate since the survey began in March 2020. ‘Waiting and seeing the next travel,’ however, accounted for 46%.
Japanese people in favor of restarting Go To Travel account for 54%, while 36% say they are traveling even without it
According to NTTCom Research's survey, respondents in favor of restarting Go To Travel accounted for 53.5%, while 6.2% said that they are willing to travel even without it.
Okinawa Prefecture sells Okinawa to Japanese travelers as an alternative destination to overseas travel
Okinawa Prefecture and Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) promote to sell Okinawa to Japanese overseas travel lovers as an alternative destination to overseas travel in four categories of ‘America,’ ‘Hawaii,’ ‘Asia’ and ‘Ryukyu.'
Japanese departures were 51,000 in November 2021, about 20,000 more than a year ago
The number of Japanese overseas travelers were 51,800 in November 2021, about 20,000 more travelers than a year ago, but still 96.8% fewer travelers than two years ago.
International arrivals in Japan were just 20,000 in November 2021, before quarantine enhancement due to Omicron variant
The number of international arrivals in Japan in November 2021 was 20,700 only, 63.5% fewer than a year ago. Omicron variant has forced the Japanese government to suspend the deregulations for a month at least.
Tokyo and Osaka partner for tourism promotion and contents development
Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau (TCVB) and Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau (OCTB) signed a comprehensive partnership agreement in the tourism space to develop joint promotions.
ANA and JAL restore domestic flight bookings forNew Year holidays to 70 to 80% of the pre-pandemic level
ANA increased its domestic flight bookings by 12.3% year on year to 1,081,252 for 2021/22 New Year holiday period, and JAL up 64.8% year on year to 978,693.
Japanese travel companies still suffered from a 26% decrease in domestic travel sales in October 2021 even after the emergency declaration was lifted
Sales in domestic travel of 45 major travel companies were down 25.7% year on year to 114.2 billion JPY (down 53.6% over two years ago) in October 2021 even after the declaration of a state of emergency was lifted.
Miyama in Kyoto and Niseko in Hokkaido are selected as UNWTO Best Tourism Villages for their SDGs efforts
Miyama in Kyoto and Niseko in Hokkaido were selected as UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)‘Best Tourism Villages 2021’ based on SDGs to preserve local communities and cultures.
Universal Studio Japan and tourism bodies in Osaka will jointly draw up a tourism strategy
Universal Studio Japan (USJ), Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau and The Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry have signed an agreement on tourism regeneration in Osaka to draw up tourism vision and strategy.
30% of Japanese workers in urban areas are interested in moving to local regions, boosted by spread of telework
29.7% of Japanese workers in urban areas are interested in moving to local regions including outskirts, and out of them, 12.9% said that they had interests in moving to local regions after the pandemic occurred.
