News

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.

Condé Nast Traveler ‘Readers’ Choice Award' chose Japan as the most attractive country’ for two straight years and Tokyo as ‘the most attractive city in the world.’

JAL has started video streaming services on the domestic flights and Inflight Wi-Fi services unlimitedly for the first and business classes and free in a hour for the premium economy and economy classes.

The total amount of toll for Mt. Fuji climbing at Fuji Yoshida Gate, the first trial this summer, reached about 300 million yen with 148,913 climbers in the period from July 1 to September 20 2024.

Shibuya City Tourism Association in Tokyo has begun providing a special logo and poster of ‘SHIBUYA♡HACHI’ for free to encourage visitors to keep manners.Shibuya suffers from troubles with visitors’ manners, such as drinking or smoking on the streets, littering and so on.

Cruise Planet, a Japan’s cruise travel OTA, launched a BtoB booking system ‘NAVIS’ for travel agents, which enables travel agents to grasp cabin availability at a glance and book available cabins immediately.

Nippon Travel Agency (NTA) and Innovative Space Carrier (ISC) signed a business partnership agreement for ‘space travel business for everyone,' expecting to commercialize the business in 2030s.

NAVITIME Japan, a leading navigation app provider, has started offering a generative AI-based travel planning function on a web service for inbound travelers to Japan.