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The number of Japanese overseas travelers was down 98.1% year on year to 30,700 in November 2020.No large increase was seen in November, despite ease of quarantine for Japanese business travelers after returning to Japan and start of pre-test program for Japanese travelers in Hawaii.

The number of international arrivals in Japan was down 97.7% year on year to 56,700 in November 2020, doubling from the previous month (28,000 arrivals). Arrivals from China still decreased by 97.6% year on year to 18,100, but largely increasing from 4,500 in October.

HIS will reduce its retail stores in Japan from 259 to 212 in the end of FY2020 and to 154 in Q1 of FY2021, as it posted net loss of 25 billion JPY for the full year of FY2020 ended October 31 2020. Chairman Sawada said “We are trying to regain profit in the latter half of FY2021.”

The Japanese government decided to suspend the domestic travel recovery initiative ‘Go To Travel’ nationwide until January 11 to make all efforts to stop infection spread. Compensation of cancellations for travel operators is up to 50% of the booked travel price.

Japanese guest nights in Kyoto City in October 2020 were up 2.2% year on year, the first monthly growth in the past 13 months since September 2019, and the average occupancy rate was also up 8.2 point to 41.0% compared to September, marking the first 40% or higher since Declaration of the State of Emergency.

Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) is developing ‘decentralized travel’ campaign as a New Normal traveling style. Using the special logo, travel operators are developing their original campaigns, creating decentralized travel-themed products and offering reward opportunities.

The JTB survey on travel trend in this coming New Year holidays results find that the ratio of ‘traveling including homecoming’ accounted for 14.8% including ‘probably traveling (6.9%),’ which was 5.2 lower points than a year ago.

JAL will provide all international flight passengers with ‘JAL Corona Cover,’ an insurance service to compensate medical, testing and quarantine expenses for a positive case in traveling, from December 23 2020 to June 30 2021.

JNTO Hanoi Office’s survey finds that about 70% of local travel agents intend to restart selling travel in Japan by the next cherry blossom season, but 82% answered that ‘lifting of travel restrictions in both Japan and Vietnam’ will be required.

The total number of Japanese guest nights in October 2020 was down 17.2% year on year to 33 million, improving by 19 points from a 36.2% reduction in September 2020, clearly boosted by the government’s domestic travel recovery initiative ‘Go To Travel.'

Travel Voice has released its original survey report titled ‘Overseas Case Studies on Travel Demand Stimulus Strategies’ to analyze cases similar to ‘Go To Travel’ and ‘COCOA,’ a contact-tracing app, giving a clear picture of comparisons among the governments' initiatives.

JAL has started selling ‘JAL Dynamic Package ‘ tours to motivate living in two regions for Obihiro City (Hokkaido), Toyoka City (Hyogo), Munakata City (Fukuoka) and Aso City (Kumamoto).

JAL Group LCC ZIPAIR sells optional PCR test package to passengers on it Narita-Honolulu flights, which will be launched on December 19, to ensure their travel confidence.

The Japanese government has decided to extend 'Go To Travel' to the end of June next year from originally January 31 2021 and also to receive small group inbound travelers step by step toward Tokyo Olympics next summer.

Users for the Japanese government’s leading domestic travel recovery initiative ‘ Go To Travel’ reached about 52.6 million by November 15. For the half a month by November 15 only, about 8.25 million users increased.

Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) targets 3.7 million arrivals in FY2020 and 6.7 million domestic arrivals and 300,000 international arrivals in FY2021, supposing that the current COVID-19 condition including travel restrictions, will improve.

The number of home sharing hosts giving up their businesses reached 7,807 as of November 10 2020, according to Japan Tourism Agency, The major reason is 'Not expecting to make a profit' amid the COVID-19 crisis with a share of 49.1%.

JTB aims to achieve operating profit of 30 billion JPY as early as FY2024 and 45 billion JPY as early as FY2028, for which its new midterm business plan focuses on accelerating the digital-base business for new values and lifestyles services not only relying on people's movement.

ANA has decided to raise as much as 332.1 billion JPY by issuing new stocks to consolidate its financial base and to accelerate its business portfolio reform including purchase of efficient and eco-friendly Boeing 787.

The Japanese government decided to exclude Osaka City and Sapporo City as destinations from the domestic travel recovery initiative 'Go To Travel' by December 15 2020 because COVID-19 cases have rapidly been increasing.