News

WILLER has just begun selling AI-based sharing mobility service ‘mobi’ in Kyotango City, Kyoto Prefecture and Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, as a subscription service at 5,000 JPY a month.

Japanese travel agents are still struggling with the pandemic, as sales of 46 major travel companies increased by 255.2 % year on year to 62.4 billion JPY in total in April 2021, but the result was still 85.2% lower than April 2019.

More than 90% of Japanese tour operators for international visitors cut jobs, and 40% have cut more than half of jobs in the pandemic, which will possibly be a big hurdle to catch a recovery wave, Japan Inbound Media Consortium (JIMC)'s survey says.

Tourism White Paper 2021 reports guest nights for ‘Go To Travel’ domestic travel boosting campaign for six months and changes of travel trends in Japan, and also clarifies the current challenges and required solutions for the tourism industry.

Posting 23.2 billion JPY in net loss for first six months of FY2021, HIS aims to lower the sales ratio of core travel business from 70% currently to around 50% in the next five years, focusing on restaurant business and ryokan rehabilitation business as a new business portfolios.

Haneda Airport will begin serving an automatic driving mobility from a parking space to a departure gate, using the WHILL single-passenger vehicle, which can be retuned to a parking space automatically without manned operation.

Travel DX, a VR-based travel experience provider, sells 360-degree camera ‘VRTrip for a group,’ supposing companies, shopping malls or schools as potential customers.

JTB launches a new business to support companies or schools for workplace COVID-19 vaccination, serving selection of a venue, dispatch of doctors or nurses, schedule management and layout arrangement in a venue.

Booking.com survey finds that 82% of Japanese respondents answered ‘Sustainability is very important in traveling,' but 28% said that they did not know how to search sustainable accommodations.

The tourism industry is far behind other industries in terms of the number of companies taking measures for SDGs. The ratio is 20.3%, according to the joint survey by Rikkyo University and JTB Tourism Research & Consulting. Major challenges are shortage of human resources, times and budgets.

the number of Japanese guest nights was up 146.9% to 24 million in April 2021 over March 2020, but still down 52.8% compared to March 2019. The average occupancy rate was 32.5%, dropping from 34.9% in March 2021.

ANA and Peach Aviation, an ANA subsidiary LCC, will begin code-shared flights on Paech’s operating domestic Narita and Chubu (Nagoya) routes in late August 2021.

Fun Group, a Japanese overseas in-destination tour provider, has begun selling vaccination support package tours in Las Vegas and San Francisco. The price is 58,800 JPY .

The Japanese government has entered into serious discussion about dynamic pricing for railway in response to possible change of working style, expecting that it may help easing congestion in a commuting time zone in urban areas.

AIRDO, an airline for Hokkaido, and Solaseed Air, an airline for Kyushu, signed an agreement to establish a holding company in October 2022 to recover financial bases damaged by the pandemic and provide customers with value-added services and products for sustainable growth.

Sales of 46 major travel companies reduced by 78.4% year on year to 999.7 billion JPY in total in FY2020, reducing overseas travel by 97.7% to 42.5 billion JPY and inbound travel by 96% to 9.1 million JPY respectively amid the pandemic.

JR Kyushu, a railway company covering Kyushu area, will operate ‘Share Office Shinkansen’ from June 14 and 30 this year except weekend, preparing the designated car without reserved-seats.

‘The Responsible Traveler,’ a series of manners eduction movies produced by Dentsu Tech for Japan Tourism Agency, featuring humorous performances by five Samurai and Karate Masters, won Intermedia-globe Gold for 2021 World Media Festival.

Nine out of the top 10 receiving the subsides for employment adjustment are an airline and tourism-related companies. Top is ANA with 43.7 billion JPY, followed by Oriental Land operating Tokyo Disneyland.

ANA began testing IATA Travel Pass on the Haneda-New York and Haneda-Honolulu, joined by volunteer passengers, on May 24, expecting that the digital health accreditation app will be a trump card for restart of international travel.