News
Yusen Cruise, a Japanese leading cruise operator, names a new ship as ‘Asuka III,’ appealing as art museum on the sea
Yusen Cruise, a Japanese leading cruise operator, names a new 52,000 tons ship as ‘Asuka III,' which will enter into the service in 2025. Yusen says it will be a moving art museum on the sea.
Experience booking platform ‘Klook’ starts selling a package of accommodation and local activities in Japan particularly for young generations
Local experience booking platform ‘Klook’ has started offering ‘Stay +,’ a package combing accommodation booking with in-destination products such as such as airport railway tickets or theme-park admission tickets.
Japanese outbound travelers were still down 43% in August 2023 compared to 2019 despite the summer holiday season
The number of Japanese overseas travelers were 1,201,200 in August 2023, the first over 1 million a month since the pandemic happened.
International arrivals in Japan recovered to 80% of 2019 in August 2023 with more visitors from 13 markets than pre-pandemic
The number of international visitors in Japan in August 2023 was 2,156,900, recovering to a 14.4% reduction compared to the same month 2019. China lifted the group travel restriction to Japan on August 10 2023, but the effect was limited in August.
The top-prize winner of Japan Tourism Award 2024 goes to ‘Hotels on the entire railway line project’ shifting a local challenge to a value
The top-prize winners of ‘The 7th Japan Tourism Award' goes to ‘Hotels on the entire railway line project’ renovating vacant houses to hotel rooms and unmanned stations to hotel receptions along the JR Ome Line.
Total sales of 43 Japanese major travel companies in July 2023 were still down 30% over 2019
Sales of 43 major travel companies in July 2023 were down 29.4% over 2019 to 289.2 billion JPY. Sales in inbound travel recovered to a 14.4% reduction to 15.5 billion JPY.
Online dealings of travel services in Japan was up 70% year on year to 2.4 trillion JPY in FY2022
The market scale of e-commerce by consumers (BtoC-EC) expanded to 22.7 trillion JPY in FY2022 ending March 31 2023 from 20.7 trillion JPY a year ago. The market scale of online dealings for travel services. except business trips, was up 68% to 2.4 trillion JPY.
Singapore Airlines will restore flight capacity for Japan to the 2019 level, including restart of Haneda services
Singapore Airlines will considerably expand its flight capacity for Japan in this coming October, as it restarts three flights a day for Haneda on October 1. The airline’s network for Japan will be restored to the pre-pandemic level.
A new medical tourism is launched in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture Japan, in cooperation between accommodations and a local clinic
A medical tourism by collaboration by a ski resort, accommodations and a local clinic was launched in Hakuba Iwatake area in Nagano Prefecture for travelers who are concerned about their own healths.
Adventure Travel World Summit 2023 was held in Hokkaido for the first time in Asia, joined by 750 participants from 64 countries and regions
Adventure Travel World Summit 2023 (ATWS 2023) opened in Sapporo, Hokkaido on September 11 for the first time in Asia. Shannon Stowel, ATTA CEO, said that Hokkaido has high-quality nature, culture and activity assets for adventure travel, and also they are very diversified.
JAL will restart flights for Kona of Hawaii Island for this coming New Year holidays, totally serving 33 flights weekly for Hawaii
JAL will serve three flights a week between Narita and Kona of Hawaii Island for this coming New Year holiday period, totally serving 33 flights a week between Narita, Haneda, Kansai and Chubu and Hawaii.
A Japanese IT solution provider for accommodation links with ChatGPT to raise its multi-language AI chatbot service’s capacity
tripla, a Japanese IT solution provider for accommodation, has raised capacity of its multi-language AI chatbot service ‘tripla Bot’ through a linkage with ChatGPT.
Star Flyer is the most-satisfied airline among Japanese domestic flight users, and customer satisfaction largely relies on crews and flight delay
J.D. Power Japan ‘airline customer satisfaction survey 2023’ finds that the most-satisfied airline is Star Flyer. he most-affected factor to customer satisfaction is ‘flight crew’ with the ratio of 27%.
Hawaii Senator and Representative visiting Japan emphasized, “We always welcome Japanese travelers to Hawaii except wildfire-damaged West Maui.”
A Hawaii State Legislature delegate of a total of 13 members recently visited Japan to deepen economic partnership and friendship with Japan. They talked about the current condition in wildfire-damaged Maui.
A cross-ministries conference for relaxation of over-tourism in Japan just started in order to sum up effective measures in this autumn
The first meeting of a cross-ministries conference to discuss prevention or control of over-tourism was held on September 6 to sum up effective measures in this autumn. At the first meeting, the members shared the current challenges in tourism.
Japan Tourism Agency requests 2.2 times more budget for FY2024 than FY2023, focusing on a labor shortage issue in the hospitality industry
Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) has requested a budget of 24.1 billion JPY for FY2024 starting April 1 2024, 2.2 times more budget than FY2023. For programs to solve the labor shortage issue particularly in the hospitality industry, 400 million JPY, 2.67 times more than FY2023 have been requested.
HIS of Japan launches a new subsidiary for Africa in Kenya to provide travelers from the world with accommodations
HIS, one of the leading travel companies in Japan, will launch a new subsidiary in Nairobi, Kenya in late September this year to provide travelers with accommodation services in Africa.
ANA will provide its most seats on the Honolulu route ever from December 2012 with all A380 flights
ANA will begin operating all of 14 Narita-Honolulu flights a week (two flights a day) with the A380 ‘FLYING HONU’ on December 6 2013, offering the most seats on the route ever including even before COVID-19.
Narita Airport handled more than 2 million international flight passengers for two months in a row, restoring foreigners to 90% of the 2019 level
Narita International Airport international flight passengers reached 2.25 million in July 2023, exceeding 2 million for two months in a row. Foreigner passengers were up 6.8 times year on year to 1.44 million.
Tourism Minister of Japan says that cross-ministries solution plans against over-tourism will be announced in this coming autumn
Tetsuo Saito, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, revealed that Japan Tourism Agency will set up a meeting to discuss prevention or control of over-tourism to reveal solution plans in this coming autumn.
