Japan Domestic Travel

Kyoto City plans to raise accommodation tax from currently 200 to 1,000 yen a night to10,000 yen a night at most, The proposed new tax rule are divided into five categories.

AI-based travel planning service ‘Hako Tabi’ is available in Hakone, a famous onsen resort in Japan, developed by a University of Tokyo startup ‘EasyX’ and local Hakone DMO.

Kenji Hamamoto, Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) International Tourism Department Director, talked about over-tourism in Japan in the interview with Travel Voice. He emphasized that over-tourism is not 'tourism pollution.

JTB has forecasted that the number of Japanese travelers in 2025 is expected to increase by 2.9% year on year to 319 million in total, and International visitors to Japan are estimated at 402 million, 8.9% more visitors than 2024.

According to Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI), the ratio of interests in Osaka Kansai EXPO 2025 remained at the same level, but the ratio of intension to visit the EXPO several times increased from 15% previously to 18.8%.

Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) has created new ‘Travel Etiquette’ and ‘Tourism Pictogram’ to raise awareness of tourist etiquette and recommended behavior.

Canon Marketing Japan is sending stories about Japan Heritage certified by Agency for Cultural Affairs (ACA), posting short movies titled ‘Everyday Japan Heritage’ on ACA official SNS.

The survey about traveling with a dog in Japan shows 96.3% want to travel with their dogs, and 84.3% said that they want to travel with their dogs even though travel cost is higher.

According to Yahoo! search big data about onsen destinations in Japan, the highest growth rate in searches in comparison between August to October 2024 and a year ago was seen in Shirabu Onsen, Yamagata.

According to the Jalan Research Center's survey, 59.7% of people in residence areas and 63.4% of people in business areas realized that tourists are crowded or slightly crowded.

The total number of guest nights in August 2024 was up 1% year on year to 64.9 million. Guest nights of international travelers were up 24.9% to 13.2 million (up 39.5% over August 2019), accounting for 20.4% of the total.

DMO KYOTO and City of Kyoto is developing ‘Kyoto Traveler’s Promise’ campaign from November 1 2024 to February 2025 to promote ‘Kyoto Tourism Moral.' A pre-booking of parking slots will be introduced in Higashiyama area.

A premium event ’Special experience in “The Heart” of Tokyo’ in Kokyo Gaien National Garden (outer garden of the Imperial Palace) will be organized for the first time on November 20 and 21.

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.

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.

Four-days Tourism EXPO Japan (TEJ) 2024 opened on September 26, 2024 at Tokyo Big Sight, organizing symposiums, seminars, exhibitions and business meetings for outbound travel, inbound travel and domestic travel.

Kyoto City will operate dedicated bus, called ‘Hands Free Bus,’ to travelers carrying large suitcases from Kyoto Station to major hotels in this autumn as one of the efforts to avoid over-tourism.

HOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO will offer ‘Special Private Tours’ to three famous temples in Kyoto, Kiyomizudera, Toji and Hokyoji, for limited guests in this coming autumn.

WeatherNews has forecasted that autumn leaves this year are expected to be at their average peak in many places. The peak will come in Daisetsuzan Asahidake, Hokkaido around September 14,

The total amount of Japanese travel spending was up 14.9% year on year to 6.5 trillion yen in the 2nd quarter of 2024. The total consisted of 5.1 trillion yen for overnight trips (up 12.3% over 2019) and 1.3 million yen for day trips (down 7.2% over 2019).