News

The occupation rate of 100 hotels in Kyoto City is expected to recover to 52.6% in November this year from 27% in September due to higher domestic travel demand after declaration of a state of emergency was lifted.

Mt.Fuji Area Tourism DX Innovation Consortium including Panasonic begins demonstration tests for ‘free-hand tourism’ in the area by using face recognition digital pass for payments and entries in Fuji Kyuko railway and tourism facilities.

ANA Holdings has revised downward its FY2021 (April 2021 to March 2022) financial forecast to net loss of 100 billion JPY from originally expected net profit of 3.5 billion JPY.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) is addressing sustainable tourism in Japan more seriously from standpoints of protecting and cultivating ‘environment,’ ‘culture’ and ‘economy’ in local communities, particularly focusing on the European market.

The most used information-gathering tool by Japanese GenZ was SNS (69.8%) in 2021, replacing TV (40.8%) in 2014, and users of mail apps reduced from 64.7% to 42.6%, while users of music and video apps remarkably increased from 39.8% to 70.6%.

JAL plans to launch commercial ‘Flying Car’ service for Osaka, Kansai EXPO in 2025, connecting between KIX and the venue as air taxi or offering sightseeing tours.

The number of Japanese overseas travelers were 52,400 in September 2021, about 20,000 more travelers than a year ago, but 97% fewer travelers than two years ago.

The number of international visitors to Japan in September 2021 reduced again to 17,700 from 51,000 in July and 26,000 in August because Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics ended.

one of major travel agencies in Japan, Developing its original vaccination passport ‘Smart Corona Pass,’ working on LINE, Tobu Top Tours will use it for the government-led vaccination package demonstration program.

Shizuoka Prefecture and NEC will test the face recognition system for about 100 participants in trekking tours to Mt. Fuji to check their registered vaccination or negative certificates on the app.

Rakuten, one of largest OTAs in Japan, and Marriott International signed a strategic partnership to enhance collaboration between Marriott Bonvoy and Rakuten membership program.

Yoshiharu Hoshino, Hoshino Resorts CEO, talked about the current business condition and the future business at ‘Hoshino Resorts LIVE 2021 Autumn.' He said international travelers to Japan would not come back easily .

Teikoku Data Bank reported that the number of closed hotels and ryokans for the first nine months of 2021 was 143, already more than the last year or the most in the last decade.

Kyoto City and Kyoto Convention Bureau launched a support program to subsidize four-fifths of the expense on PCR tests for a MICE organizer.

JR East will begin offering the 8th Shinkansen car on all Tohoku, Hokuriku and Jyoetsu lines as ‘Shinkansen Office Car’ exclusively for business travelers to establish a seamless work space network.

ANA and JAL drew up a joint report ‘Toward Virtually Zero CO2 Emissions from Air Transport in 2050’ toward a joint effort to expand awareness and understanding of Sustainable Air Fuel (SAF) in Japan.

11 travel companies join the government-leading ‘vaccination and test package’ demonstration for their selected 38 tours departing mostly from Tokyo to a variety of destinations nationwide.

Since declaration of a state of emergency related to COVID-19 in Japan was lifted, travel and transportation companies have seen good signs for demand recovery. How are their businesses changing?

Japanese guests in 100 hotels in Kyoto City were up 30.4% in August 2021 compared to a year ago or down 20.6% compared to two year ago. DMO KYOTO has foreseen that the occupancy rate will rise in November, the autumn leaves month, due to ease of travel restriction.

Adventure Travel World Summit (ATWS) 2023 will be held in Hokkaido as a real event, which is expected to become one of the keys for tourism revitalization after COVID-19.