Japan Bound

Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau will install multi-language generative AI ‘Kotozna laMondoI’ with a capability of more than 20 different languages on its official website.

NAVITIME Japan, a navigation app provider of Japan, revealed which cities in Japan is getting popular among tourists from U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Italy, based on the search results on ‘Japan Travel by NAVITIME’ app.

Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB) has forecasted that the number of tourists to Okinawa will increase by 44.3% year on year to 8.22 million in 2023. International arrivals in Okinawa are expected to reduce 65.5% to 1.02 million compared to 2019.

Japan is selected as top 3 ‘next destination’ in all of the 12 targeted APAC markets except India, according to Klook, an experience booking platform. In contrast, 84% of Japanese respondents select Japan as the next destination.

Passengers using Narita International Airport were up 91% year on year to 3.21 million in August 2023. International flight passengers totaled 2.41 million, 155% more than a year ago or 29% fewer than August in 2019.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) Dubai Office Executive Officer, Daisuke Kobayashi, talked how important the Middle East is for Japan to exploit a new luxury travel market. He said, "Middle East is the last blue ocean for Japan."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Alibaba Japan launches a medical tourism service in Japan for Chinese travelers on the Alibaba Group cross-border EC platform ‘Tmall Global, on which Japanese medical companies or organizations open their official shops.

JTB and trip.com have agreed to lunch a new joint venture to solve challenges of hospitality operators and local governments in the inbound travel market from Asia to Japan.

Japanticket, e-ticket solution provider for inbound travelers to Japan, is developing several trials of ‘Premium Gastronomy Tour’ using HONDA Motor-made business jet ‘HondaJet’ for high-value inbound travelers to Japan. Where did ‘Premium gastronomy tours’ idea come from?

The number of international arrivals in Japan in July 2023 was down 22.4% to 2,320,600 compared to the same month 2019. The total for the first seven months reached 13,032,900.

Rikkyo University, Hinomaru bus operator and Sky Hop Bus Marketing Japan has started selling ‘Neo Tokyo Tour,’ a nighttime sightseeing bus tour. The idea was created by Rikkyo University Tourism Department students in the fieldwork class.

the occupancy rate of 111 hotels in Kyoto City in June 2023 was down 4.3 points over May 2023 or up 22.2 points over June 2022 to 76.5%. The ratio of international guests was 51.2% of the total.

Mizuho, a mega bank of Japan, Mizuho China and Trip.com signed a strategic partnership agreement to address rise in quality in tourism industries of China and Japan from a long-term perspective.

Rieko Nakayama, Executive Vice President at Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), explained the current inbound travel market situation and JNTO's Inbound Marketing Strategy.

The number of international visitors in Japan in June 2023 was 2,073,300, the first more than 2 million a month since the pandemic happened. The largest source market was still South Korea with 545.100 visitors

Combination of the Airporter’s baggage delivery system with an airline’s online check-in system allows a traveler to deliver baggage from a hotel and to pick it up at an arrival airport in a foreign country.