Four-days Tourism EXPO Japan (TEJ) 2024 will open in Tokyo Big Sight on September 26 2024, joined by about 80 foreign exhibitors and all of 47 prefectures in Japan. Exhibitions will be more than 1,500 booths, about 85% of the largest event in 2018.
Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA), one of the organizers, has forecasted more than 730 buyers, more than 6,000 business meetings and 180,000 visitors, more than 148,000 visitors in Osaka last year, for four days.
At TEJ Ministerial Round Table on the first day, tourism ministers from 10 countries, representatives from UN Tourism, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Europe Tourism Commission (ETC) and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) will discuss ‘creation of new travel,’ which is a main theme of this year’s TEJ.
A keynote panel discussion will focus on ‘expansion of tourism exchange,’ talked about adventure tourism, local revitalization, leading cases in Europe and so forth by Shigeru Takada from Tsuruga Resort, Shunpei Shimada, Satoyume CEO, Eduardo Santander. ETC CEO/Executive Director and Eijiro Yamakita, JTB CEO.
U.S. and Europe expand exhibition spaces
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of overseas travel liberalization in Japan this year, TEJ2024 is going to propose new travel styles, introducing diversified travel contents, such as cruise, sports tourism, adventure tourism or stargazing tourism.
For quick recovery of the outbound travel market, an exhibition space for U.S. will be expanded to appeal Japan-U.S. Tourism Year, and Hawaii Tourism Japan will exhibit at 3 times wider space than the last year.
ETC will also expand exhibitions, joined by 13 countries and regions including Greece for the first time in the decade, and Spain and three Baltic countries will open independent booths.
For domestic travel, The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition will appeal Osaka Kansai EXPO 2025. Also, Warner Bros. Studio Tour Tokyo-The Making of Harry Potter will show up.
JAL will develop its booth decorated with Shoei Otani, LA Dodgers superstar, because travel demand for Major League Baseball is much higher.