Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) hosted inspection tours for five member companies of luxury travel consortium ‘Serandipians’ in Hokuriku and Setouchi. Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) designates 14 areas, including Hokuriku and Setouchi, as high-value travel model destinations in order to attract wealthy inbound travelers with a potentiality to spend 1 million yen or more a trip.
JNTO signed a partnership agreement with Serandipians in 2018. Quentin Desurmont, Serandipians Chairman, who visited Japan to join the inspection tour, revealed, “Japan always is one of the top five destinations, based on the results of surveys to member companies.” Japan was awarded “Most Desired Preferred Destination 2024,’ which was selected by Serandipians members, following 2019 and 2020.
Serandipians is a community consisting small and medium travel and hospitality companies with luxury traveler customers, rebranded from ‘Travel Made’ in 2021, and launched ‘Takumians’ as a new community in 2024. to quest craftsmanship in a destination.
The community network has extended from Europe initially to international with about 570 travel companies and about 930 hotels for Serandipians and about 90 travel companies and about 120 hotels for Takumians.
“The important thing is to maintain quality of members, not to increase members,” Desurmont said. “If a member is degraded, it can be expelled.”
ドゥシューモン会長自身も旅行会社を持ち、視察ツアーに参加。
“Serandipians travelers tend to choose travel destinations to satisfy personal preferences or to broaden their knowledge for professional use,” Desurmont said. “Japan is a destination for them to get new inspirations.”
On the other hand, he pointed out some challenges for Japan to face in terms of receiving luxury travelers. One of them is a language barrier, especially direct communication in English in local areas,
Also, he said, “In Japan, preparations are made carefully and early, but wealthy travelers don't necessarily like this. They sometimes want to change their wishes and itineraries during a trip,” implying that flexibility is needed for luxury travel.
