News

Hokkaido District Transport Bureau launched a website to inform foreign backcountry skiers or snowboarders of three tips for safer experiences.

The number of international guests in December 2024 was up 22.9% year on year to 15.4 million. The ratio of those staying in local regions expanded from 28.2% in December 2022 to 33.6% in December 2024.

ANA Holdings has decided to place new orders for 77 aircraft in total in order to prepare for an increase in international flight demand, including inbound travel demand to Japan, in the future.

IHG Hotels & Resorts announced that its opened hotels in Japan have reach 50 in total, as three new brands of Six Senses,’ ‘Vignette Collection’ and ‘Garner’ recently entered Japan for the first time.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) hosted ‘Japan Luxury Showcase 2025,’ a BtoB event for global travel companies that have luxury travel customers. 40 buyers from 16 countries and 45 domestic sellers met for business discussions.

The number of general passport issues was up 8.8% year on year to 3.7 million in 2024, and the passport holder percentage was just 16.8% of the entire population of 123 million.

ANA and U.S.-based OTA Hopper have begun selling ANA tickets through IATA’s leading New Distribution Capability (NDC), powered by Ireland-based Openjaw Technologies and delivered through Travelfusion, a major content aggregator.

Air X, a helicopter tour operator, has begun selling a private jet tour with pets to Iki Island in Nagasaki. The private jet tour takes travelers to the island for 2 hours and 5 minutes from Tokyo.

Osaka Prefecture will raise the lowest targeting accommodation price from 7,000 currently to 5,000 yen and the tax rates on September 1 2025, expected to increase tax revenue from 2.5 billion yen a year in 2023 to 8 billion yen a year.

The total amount of Japanese travel consumption in Japan was up 14.6% year on year to record-high 25.1 trillion yen in 2024, and travel spending a travel per traveler was up 5.8% year on year to record-high 46,579 yen.

The number of Japanese outbound travelers in January 2025 was up 8.8% year on year to 912,300, still 37.2% fewer travelers than January in 2019, still affected by weaker yen and rise in prices in Japan.

The number of international visitors to Japan in January 2025 was up 40.6% year on year to 3,781,200, breaking the single-month record for two months in a row, boosted by Chinese New Year holidays.

Hotel Okura, a Japanese prestige hotel brand formed a strategic alliance with Plataran Indonesia, a resort hotel brand of Indonesia, for business collaborations. They saw many common grounds in management philosophy.

‘Tabi wa hitomakase (Travel depends on local people in English)' was launched in Shikoku, Japan. Local residents as ‘casts’ share local lives and experiences with travelers as ‘guests,’ which is expected to provide deeper connections with people with travelers.

Hankyu Travel International, a Japanese travel agent, will charter ‘Le Jacques Cartier,’ a cruise ship of France-based Ponant, in March and April 2027 to offer Setonaikai cruise tours to luxury international travelers to Japan.

‘Linktivity,’ a BtoB e-ticket booking platform of Japan, started dealing with ‘Shanghai Pass,’ transportation pass in Shanghai on global 400 OTAs, including Japanese OTAs, connecting to Linktivity.

Klook, a Hong Kong-based local experience booking platform, raised funds of $100 million to expand partnership with Google Cloud in the AI development and to collaborate with local tourism authorities.

The occupancy rate of hotels in Kyoto City was 78.5% in 2024, 5.1 higher points than 2023. The average daily rate (ADR) was record-high 20,195 yen, higher than 17,403 yen in 2023 or 15,610 yen in 2019.

Royal Holdings of Japan, an operator of Richmond Hotels,and Minor Hotels, a Bangkok-based luxury hotel and resort residence operator, will launch a joint venture ‘Royal Minor Hotels’ to open 21 luxury hotels in Japan.

JR Kyushu, a railway company covering Kyushu area, and SkyDrive, a ‘Flying Car’ developer, signed a comprehensive agreement with Oita Prefecture to launch sightseeing tours by ‘Flying Car’ in Beppu Bay in 2028.