Travel Sectors

A stay in 400-years-old ‘Marugame Castle Experience’ in Kagawa Prefecture will be on sale at 1,265,000 JPY a night for two persons including one dinner and one breakfast.

ANA X, a ANA Group company, unveiled the TaaS (Travel as a Service) Platform concept for seamless travel on an smartphone app to expand an ANA economy zone by providing more opportunities to live or travel with accumulated miles.

Airbnb will contribute $1 million (about 153 million JPY) to a regional tourism exchange program between Japan and U.S, sending 15 to 20 tourism professionals from Japan to U.S.

ANA will begin serving complimentary in-flight internet access even to Business Class passengers on its international flights in this coming summer.

JTB, Asahi Breweries and Jidaiya, a rickshaw operator, worked together for a inbound travel program to tour cherry blossom spots in Asakusa by rickshaw. The program is to boost nighttime economy by inbound travelers.

JTB has estimated that the total number of Japanese travelers during this year’s Golden Week period (April 25 to May 5) will be up 1.8% to 23.3 million, including 520,000 outbound travelers, 67.7% more than a year ago.

Ministry of Justice of Japan has started issuing ‘digital nomad’ visa to a foreigner with annual income of 10 million JPY or more in about 50 visa waiver countries or regions

Japan Tourism Agency has selected 20 pioneer model areas and 51 general areas for prevention of over-tourism, such as ‘Niseko Model for usage of taxi’ in Kutchan, Hokkaido, ‘Equalization of crowd and ease of traffic jam’ in Hakone, Kanagawa.

JAL has launched ‘JAL Corporate SAF Program,’ which enables corporate users to visualize CO2 reduction based on JAL flights in terms of cargo transport or business trips.

Ikyu, a Japanese OTA for high-end accommodation, opened an overseas hotel booking platform in tie-ups with Expedia Rapid API.

HIS launched a new accommodation booking platform ‘WOW+,’ which lists unique properties only, giving users search opportunities from experience keywords.

Jeff Moomaw, Vice President Asia Pacific at Delta Air Lines, revealed that the airline will increase seat capacity in APAC by 35% in 2024. The airline continues investing to improvement of customer experiences.

Green Destinations Top 100 Story Awards selected Hakone Town, Kanagawa Prefecture, as top in Business & Marketing and Miyazu City, Kyoto Prefecture as 3rd in Culture & Tradition.

‘JTB BÓKUN,’ an activity booking management system,’ has completed API integration with ‘byFood.com' for inbound travelers to Japan, enabling food tour providers on byFood.com to make their operations more effective.

JTB Global Marketing & Travel has deveped two new tour routes of ‘Hokkaido AdveNature Route’ and ‘Northern Japan Discovery Route’ in Tohoku in SUNRISE TOURS for inbound travelers.

Bankruptcies of ski resorts in Japan increased from three in 2022 to seven in 2023, which were the most bankruptcies in the last decade due to unprecedented warm winter and shortage of snow.

Travel + Leisure has acquired the Yushi Chikumakan resort in Chikuma City, in the Nagano prefecture of Japan, and will rebrand the property to ‘Club Wyndham Chikumakan Nagano.’

American Airlines will launch daily New York (JFK)-Haneda services with the Boeing 777-200 on June 28 2024, enhancing the joint venture with JAL, expanding to up to 17 flights a day including 10 flights for Haneda a day.

Emirates will introduce A380 on the Dubai-Kansai route on June 1 2024, expecting to carry transit passengers to Milan, Madrid, Paris or London beyond Dubai from Japan.

Japan Tourism Agency officially announced outlines of a travel discount program in the devastated Hokuriku. International visitors to Japan are eligible for the program, too.