News

The Mori Memorial Foundation Institute for Urban Strategy announced the Global Power City Index (GPCI) 2023. The most powerful city is London, followed by New York, Tokyo, Paris and Singapore.

Accor announced that they will open 12 Grand Mercure hotels and 11 Mercure hotels in Japan nationwide at the same time on April 1 2024 and develop ‘#Hanare Tabi (Remote Travel in English)’ project as a new travel style.

Guest nights by Japanese travelers and foreigner travelers in September 2023 were respectively up 0.6% to 40.7 million and up 15.4% to 9.5 million compared to the same month of 2019.

Sales of 182 amusement park and theme park operators in Japan in FY2022 increased by 48.7% year on year to 760.3 billion JPY in total. The top in terms of sales was Oriental Land, operator of Tokyo Disney Resort, with 410.5 billion JPY.

81.3% of all respondents decides itineraries in Japan before their departures, regardless of travel days or travel styles. The ratio among FIT is 82.9%, higher than tour (hotel+transportation) travelers.

JAL Group resulted in more revenue, EBIT and net profit for the first half of FY2023 than the same period of FY2019 and has revised the full-year financial forecast upward.

ANA Holdings posted record-high operating revenue and operating income for the first half of FY2023 (April 1 to September 30) and has decided to pay a dividend of 30 JPY for the first time in five years.

Three regional airlines, ANA and JAL established Essential Air Service Alliance or EAS Alliance to maintain flight networks for remote areas and boost travel demand.

Nara Prefecture strengthens gastronomy tourism for inbound travelers, offering specially-arranged tours focusing on sake or local foods in Nara.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) survey to participants in ATWS 2023, the biggest challenge is ‘English skill of guides.’ JNTO also said that A key to send travelers to local regions is revival of direct flights from East Asia.

‘EXPO 2025 Digital Wallet’ service started on November 1 2023 to connect the EXPO with wallet users, nicknaming e-money as ‘MYAKU-PE!' and reward point as ‘MYAKU-PO!’

Four-days ‘Tourism Expo Japan 2023 Osaka/Kansai’ was held with a theme of ‘OPEN THE DOOR TO THE FUTURE,’ from October 26 to 29 2023 to showcase the future of diversified tourism industries in Japan after the pandemic.

Brand Research Institute' survey finds that the most-attractive prefecture was Hokkaido for 15 years in a row, and the most-attractive city was Sapporo for three years in a row.

Spending in Japan by international travelers for the third quarter of 2023 (July to September 2023) was estimated at 1.39 trillion JPY, and the top market was China with 282.7 billion JPY.

The number of Japanese overseas travelers were 1,004,700 in September 2023, marking more than 1 million for two months in a row, but the result was still down 42.6% compared to September 2019.

The number of international visitors in Japan in September 2023 was 2,184,300, recovering to a 3.9% reduction compared to the same month 2019. The largest source market continued to be South Korea with 570,400 visitors.

The Japanese government approved a policy package for measures against over-tourism with three pillars of manner eduction, more international visitors to local regions and joint tourism promotions with local communities.

Shimanami Japan, a local DMO, has started tourism DX demonstration on its app for rent-a-bicycle users in Shimanami area in order to increase local spending by them.

Princess Cruises has started selling Yokohama-based cruises in 2025, serving 17 cruises visiting 34 cities in South Korea and Taiwan as well as in Japan.

Air Aisa X will restart serving four flights a week on the Kuala Lumpur- Sapporo route on December 3 2023.Hokkaido is a popular destination for Malaysians.