Travel Sectors

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.

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.

Highway bus WILLER's Chinese passengers increased to 2,473 as of January 28 2025 during the Chinese New Year holiday period (January 13 to February 23 2025), which were about 11 times more than a year ago.

A new large-scale amusement park ‘JUNGLIA OKINAWA’ will open in the northern part of Okinawa Prefecture on July 25 2025, differentiating prices between residents in Japan and international visitors. Economic ripple effect is estimated at 6.8 trillion yen for 15 years.

JTB and Airbnb Japan have agreed to work together for reuse of abandoned houses to receive travelers in local regions, having a goal of developing the areas in 100 regions nationwide by 2028.

ANA Group, including Peach Aviation and Air Japan, plans to operate 8% more international flights in FY2025 than FY2024. Peach and Air Japan plan to expand networks for Asia respectively within FY2025. Details will be announced later.

JAL will launch daily services between Narita and Chicago on May 31 2025. Japan Transocean Air (JTA) a JAL Group airline, will launch its first international services between Naha and Taipei by the end of FY2025.

JTB CEO Eijiro Yamakita talked about a business strategy in 2025 at a partner event ‘JTB Group New Year Partnership Meeting 2025,’ redefining its big picture of ‘Bringing People, Places and Possibilities Together. He said, “As AI is evolving rapidly, we have to rethink about values of people.”

According to Teikoku Data Bank, the number of bankrupted taxi companies in a debt of more than 10 million yen in Japan was record-high 82, more than the previous record of 73 in 2019.

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.

A budget draft for Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) for FY2025 totals 53 billion yen, 5.4% more budget draft than the FY2024 budget, promoting Osaka Kansai EXPO as a chance to send inbound tourists to local areas.

J.D. Power Japan conducted a survey on hotel loyalty program satisfaction for global brands and domestic brands in Japan. Tops are Marriott Bonvoy in global brands and Toyoko INN Club Card in domestic brands.

The number of international conferences in Japan was up 2.5 times year on yea to 1,376 in 2023. In-person conferences were 736, accounting for 53% of the total, more than hybrid conferences for the first time since 2020.

Kyoto City and DMO KYOTO opened a portal site ‘LINK! LINK! LINK!’ for Kyoto citizen as one of the efforts to increase public sympathy for tourism.

J.D. Power Japan announced the results of the hotel satisfaction survey 2024, and top 0f ‘upper up-scale' category is The Okura (top in F&B, room, price, facility and check-in/out), followed by Westin and Sheraton.

Okinawa-based ‘Nature Travel Japan’ was launched as a new destination management company (DMC). Under a brand name of ‘Japan Adventure Travel,’ five local DMCs partner to create adventure travel tours across Japan for inbound travelers.

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