Travel Sectors

Japan and U.S. signed a memorandum of cooperation designating 2024 as the ‘U.S.-Japan Tourism Year’ to strengthen tourism and business exchanges between U.S. and Japan, hoping to return Japan to the number two spot in terms of number of visitors to U.S.

‘Symposium on Japanese outbound travel promotion’ at Tourism EXPO 2023 in Osaka focused on how the outbound travel market should be boosted, introducing market analyses by Spain, Malaysia and Thailand.

Sato-koya, a mountain cabin located in the 5th station of Mt.Fuji, will begin providing a tour to stay in the winter. The price is 79,200 JPY a night a person, including a variety of activities and a guide tour.

Guest satisfaction rates in Japan were down 30 points for mid-scale hotels and 19 points for economy hotels in 2023 compared to the previous survey, mainly affected by price hikes. Top up-scale hotel is Hilton.

JTB achieved the first half-year operating income in the past four years for the first half of FY2023 due to recovery of all travel business, posting 8.7 billion JPY, improving from operating loss of 4.7 billion JPY a year ago because of well-recovery of the travel business.

Sales of 43 major travel companies in September 2023 were down 26.9% to 316 billion JPY compared to the same month of 2019. The top was JTB Group with sales of 110 billion JPY (down 23%), followed by NTA with 34 billion JPY (down 16.7%).

Japan Travel and Tourism Association has built ‘Japan Travel and Tourism Association Digital Platform’ to help local regions use tourism data analysis for sustainable tourism business, offering a basic function and a paid extension function.

Hoshino Resorts, a Japan’s hotel chain, has started selling an unique stay plan without a smartphone, named ‘No Smartphone Stay.’ In checking in, smartphone is sealed in the box.

JTB and MOL Cruises signed a partnership agreement for JTB to charter a new MOL small luxury cruise ship ‘MITSUI OCEAN FUJI’ for 91-days world cruise. The world cruise will depart from Yokohama to stop by 19 cities in 14 countries.

Accor announced that they will open 12 Grand Mercure hotels and 11 Mercure hotels in Japan nationwide at the same time on April 1 2024 and develop ‘#Hanare Tabi (Remote Travel in English)’ project as a new travel style.

Sales of 182 amusement park and theme park operators in Japan in FY2022 increased by 48.7% year on year to 760.3 billion JPY in total. The top in terms of sales was Oriental Land, operator of Tokyo Disney Resort, with 410.5 billion JPY.

JAL Group resulted in more revenue, EBIT and net profit for the first half of FY2023 than the same period of FY2019 and has revised the full-year financial forecast upward.

ANA Holdings posted record-high operating revenue and operating income for the first half of FY2023 (April 1 to September 30) and has decided to pay a dividend of 30 JPY for the first time in five years.

Three regional airlines, ANA and JAL established Essential Air Service Alliance or EAS Alliance to maintain flight networks for remote areas and boost travel demand.

Nara Prefecture strengthens gastronomy tourism for inbound travelers, offering specially-arranged tours focusing on sake or local foods in Nara.

Four-days ‘Tourism Expo Japan 2023 Osaka/Kansai’ was held with a theme of ‘OPEN THE DOOR TO THE FUTURE,’ from October 26 to 29 2023 to showcase the future of diversified tourism industries in Japan after the pandemic.

The Japanese government approved a policy package for measures against over-tourism with three pillars of manner eduction, more international visitors to local regions and joint tourism promotions with local communities.

Princess Cruises has started selling Yokohama-based cruises in 2025, serving 17 cruises visiting 34 cities in South Korea and Taiwan as well as in Japan.

Air Aisa X will restart serving four flights a week on the Kuala Lumpur- Sapporo route on December 3 2023.Hokkaido is a popular destination for Malaysians.

Celebrity Cruises will serve four Japan-based cruises in 2023 and expand to 18 cruises in total through 2024, expecting to welcome more than 30,000 passengers on board.