Travel Sectors

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) announced ‘Policies for sustainable tourism and contributions to SDGs, focusing on preservation and development of ‘environment,’ ‘culture’ and ‘economy’ in local communities.

'Tour Grand Prix 2021,’ which was the 28th Grand Prix for the first time in two years, picked ‘Land Cruise JTB,’ a seat-in-couch tour product in Europe, as Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Award and four online tours were selected as digital category for overseas travel.

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.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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.

JTB posted the record-high net loss of 105.2 billion JPY for FY2020, deadly hit by the pandemic, but it has expected to move back into the black for FY2021, anticipating recovery of travel demands and acceleration of the cost cut efforts.

Heisei Enterprise, a Japanese sightseeing bus operator, will launch a campaign to pay 1,000 JPY back to a completely vaccinated traveler.

Ten Marriott group hotels in Japan, including The Ritz-Carlton Tokyo or W Osaka, have begun selling ‘to-go’ menus of their restaurants.

Vertra, a Japanese in-destination experience booking service, has launched tourism-specific crowd funding to provide tourism operators with marketing opportunities in preparation for demand growth after COVID-19.

ANA will establish a new company ‘ANA NEO’ to develop and operate a virtual travel platform ‘SKY WHALE,' which consists of ‘Sky Park,’ ‘Sky Mall’ and Sky Village’ services, taking advantage of avatar robot ‘newme’ developed by ANA Group venture company avatatin.