News

Skyscanner Travel Trends Report 2025 was released, providing insights of Japanese traveler trends about Art-Venture, Sport Mode and Reset Jetters which seem to be strong affinities for Japanese travelers.

According to Booking.com survey, the ratio of Japanese GenZ who answered ‘they value onsen or sauna’ is 49%, which is higher than 32% globally. Solo travel seems to be preferred, as the survey results show that 45% of those.

Riyadh Air, established by a government-affiliated fund, plan to begin its services in the summer 2025. The startup airline is regarded as one of the Saudi Arabia’s tourism strategies.

JAL and Hoshino Resorts launched a joint campaign to introduce 'a little-known but good destinations’ in Japan on each of the owned media and offer dynamic package tours.

Transactions on Visa cards by Korean travelers accounted for 62% in Asia Pacific, and the ratio of spendings on Visa cards in Japan increased from 39% of the total to 48%, according to Visa.

Sales of 43 major travel companies in August 2024 were up 1.8% year on year to 323.4 billion JPY, but was still down 32.5% compared to the same month of 2019. Sales and customers of package tours continued reducing a lot.

The most popular family destination among multi-generations travelers in 11 countries and regions in Asia is Tokyo, according to Booking.com survey. The highest-interested destination is Urayasu, a city of Tokyo Disneyland.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) has begun digital promotions for ‘EXPO + Tourism, encouraging JNTO website visitors to visit the ‘EXPO + Tourism’ tour booking website, and delivering NFTs featuring nature, foods or cultures in 10 regions.

Japan Tourism Agency of Japan will host ‘Tourism Resilience Summit’ in Sendai from November 9 to 11 2024 to share knowledge about strategies or plans of tourism resilience through symposiums and panel discussions.

NEC, Klook and Maruwa Transportation will begin offering ‘Travel Light’ service combining pre-checkin of a hotel with baggage delivery from an airport as one of the solution service against over-tourism.

Hoshino Resorts announced that the Japanese hotel chain will open Japanese-style ‘onsen ryokan’ in Sharon Spring, New York in 2028 as the first onsen ryokan, targeting wealthy travelers in North America.

Things encouraged to experience next time by information getting in traveling in Japan are ‘onsen,’ ‘tourism facilities’ and ‘sweets or snacks’ for Taiwanese travelers and ‘theme parks,’ ‘Japanese traditional or luxury restaurants’ and ‘popular casual restaurants among local people’ for American travelers.

The number of Japanese outbound travelers was down 30.8% to 1,212,600 in September 2024 compared to the same month 2019. The numbers for the first nine months of 2024 totaled 9,496,500.

The number of international visitors to Japan in September 2024 reached 2,872,200, 26.4% more than the same month in 2019. The final result in 2024 is expected to exceed 31.9 million visitors in 2019.

Vision, a Wi-Fi router rental company of Japan, launched a travel brand ‘Japan Destinations’ as a destination management company (DMC) to provide seamless arrangement of hotel, activity, transportation and tour guide.

Cunard, a cruise operator selected ‘Sukayu Onsen’ in Aomori, Japan as the most luxury shore excursion experience, valuing the unique landscape and Japanese traditional onsen experience and lunch.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) hosted inspection tours for luxury travel consortium ‘Serandipians’ in Hokuriku and Setouchi. Quentin Desurmont, Serandipians Chairman, who joined the tour, talked about potentiality of Japan as a luxury destination.

Pathfinder, a MaaS-related service provider, has launched a oneway rent-a-car service from Narita International Airport, targeting travelers who depart from or arrive in the airport in late night or early morning.

Shibuya Ward and Shinjuku Ward, jointly called, “Keep rules” to visitors during this coming Halloween period, enforcing the ordinances banning drinking on the streets. Ken Hasebe, Mayer of Shibuya Ward, said that strong measures are needed to prevent over-toruism.

A digital tourism PR booth was set up at Kansai International Airport to encourage international tourists to visit local areas in western Japan before Osaka Kansai EXPO opens in April 2025.