Travel Sectors

Labor shortage is still serious in hospitality services in Kyoto City. 65.1% of all answers said fewer employees than pre-COVID-19, and about 40% of accommodation and restaurant operators said that they lost 20% or more employees.

the total amount of Japanese travel consumption was up 27.7% year on year to 5.6 trillion JPY in the 2nd quarter of 2023 (April to June 2023). Travel spending a travel per traveler was up 11% year on year to 41,875JPY, which were 14.6% more than even 2019.

Indeed, a job hunting search platform, revealed that job-hunters for tourism-related jobs in Japan increased by 1.8 times in June 2023 compared to October 2022, when the nationwide travel support program started.

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.

Yahoo Data Solution Service will launch a new BtoB tool ‘DS. INSIGHT Trend’ as a new function on ‘DS,. INSIGHT' to visualize rising topics or trends from about 9 billion sorts of searched keywords a year and GPS data from about approved 10 million users.

Royal Road Ginza, a JTB luxury travel retailer, ties up with Rikkyo University Wellness Research Institute to work together for creation of new wellness travel products. The first product focuses on ‘well-sleep’ and ‘onsen’ in Kamakura and Tsukiji.

Shinichi Inoue, ANA President & CEO, talked about what ANA values i in a time of uncertainty after the pandemic at an interview with Travel Voice. One of the reasons for survival from the pandemic crisis was ANA's start-up spirit, he said.

Both ANA and JAL have had more bookings on domestic flights than a year ago and have recovered international flights bookings to 65 to 70% of 2019.

Air Japan, a new ANA group brand, has decided to start a ‘hybrid’ airline business with launch of six flights a week between Narita and Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi Airport) on February 9 2024.

JAL, Nokyo Tourist and Loyalty Marketing will jointly plan and sell pilot tours of an experience-typed Workcation program, including farm working or planting tree, for corporations in Bihoro Town, Hokkaido.

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 4th ‘Tourism Innovation Summit (TIS) 2023’ with a theme of ‘Travel revolution takes off’ will be held at Fibes in Sevilla, Spain for three days from October 18 to 20 2023. For Travel Voice audiences, 50% discount is offered.

JAL will launch daily flights between Haneda and Doha with Boeing 787-9 in the summer of 2024, expecting to carry transit passengers from Doha to major cities in partnership with Qatar Airways, an oneworld member.

NS Solutions (NSSOL), a Japanese digital solution provider, has started selling ‘TRIPHOO,’ a DX support solution for travel companies to helps them manage a series of operations for tour planning and selling on a system.

JTB has forecasted that a total of Japanese travelers in this summer holiday season (July 15 to August 31 2023) is expected to increase by 17.8% year on year to 73.7 million. Japanese outbound travelers is expected to increase by 114.3% year on year to 1.2 million.

‘Tourism EXPO Japan 2023 Osaka Kansai’ will be held in Intex Osaka for four days from October 26 to 29. A main event theme is ‘Travel festival to meet the future,’ showcasing the future vision of the diversified tourism industry.

‘Folio Sakura Shinsaibashi Osaka,’ the first ‘Folio’ brand of Banyan Tree Group in Japan, opened partially on June 27 2023. On the same day, ‘Homm Stay Yumiha Okinawa,’ the first long-stay brand ‘Homm’ in Japan, opened.

Japan Tourism Agency has selected 14 areas as target snow resorts under its program o create world-competitive snow resorts, such as Sapporo, Zao, Echigo Yuzawa or Hakuba.

TL-Lincoln, a accommodation booking and selling management system of Japan, has begun partnership with Klook to allows TL-Lincoln users in Japan to provide global OTA Klook with their rooms.

Japan National Tourism Organization drew up a three-years marketing strategy for inbound travel by 2025 to achieve the government’s goals, focusing on ‘strategy by market,’ ‘cross-market strategy’ and ‘MICR strategy.'