TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Travel revenue for January at Kinki Nippon Tourist (KNT) dropped 9.3 percent from last year to 21,107 million yen, of which overseas travel was 8,169 million yen, down 10.2 percent, and domestic travel was 12,301 million yen, down 10.3 percent. In overseas travel, group tours dipped 13.2 percent to 1,143 million yen as ordinary groups were down 26.2 percent to 792 million yen while student groups were up 44.3 percent to 350 million yen. The extraordinary growth in student groups is partly due to reinstatement of the school excursions once postponed on account of the H1N1 flu epidemic. Package tours plunged 20.2 percent to 4,005 million yen as Holiday went down by 19.9 percent to 4,005 million yen. Overseas individual travel rose 9.2 percent to 3,020 million yen because international air ticket sales were upbeat.

Domestic group tours showed a growth of 6.1 percent with sales of 3,786 million yen as student groups climbed 12.6 percent to 2,684 million yen although ordinary groups sank 7.0 percent to 1,102 million yen. Domestic package tours fell 17.2 percent to 5,285 million yen with Mate down 17.1 percent to 5,283 million yen and other package tours down 68.7 percent to 2.4 million yen. Individual travel lost 14.0 percent to 3,229 million yen. Inbound travel surged 33.8 percent to 266 million yen.

KNT spun off, as of January 1, the business of Hokkaido and Kyushu districts to be succeeded by the new companies of Kinki Nippon Tourist Hokkaido Co. and Kinki Nippon Tourist Kyushu Co. respectively, but it will consolidate the business results of these two to KNT itself until the end of this year just for the sake of statistical reference.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

Destination Quebec hosted a reception for the Japanese media on March 3 jointly with Air Canada (AC). The venue was the “Theatre Tokyo” of CIRQUE DU SOLEIL which has its base in Montreal, Quebec. The “ZED,” a program exclusively prepared for the Japanese market, was introduced to the invited guests. Seichi Iwabuchi, Regional Director at Destination Quebec, opened the reception, citing that he would like every guest to experience the flavor of Quebec first-hand through the performance by CIRQUE DU SOLEIL, followed by local cuisine from Quebec, adding that the media event will further help improve the recognition of Quebec in the Japanese travel market.

In a drive to enhance its market recognition, Destination Quebec has meanwhile established the “Quebec Media Club,” in fact, members of which were invited to the reception. Commenting on a significance of the PR activities, Iwabuchi said that he is hopeful that the PR activities will achieve tangible results in motivating prospective travelers to make inquiries with travel agencies and thus encouraging them to start to produce the package tours.

Kiyo Weiss, Sales and Marketing Manager Japan, Air Canada, told the guests, while giving a toast, that the airline will start a new service to Calgary from March 28 in addition to the current non-stop flights to Vancouver and Toronto, adding that the new service to Calgary will further enhance its accessibility to Canada. She also told the travel agencies that the number of tourists to Quebec peaks undoubtedly in its autumn season. The new thrice-weekly service to Quebec, which is scheduled to be operated from March 28 through to October 29, should accommodate the peak traffic during the autumn season, she said, expecting that it will help encourage the travel agencies to produce package tours featuring the summer and the autumn season in Quebec.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) organized a Hong Kong MICE travel mission in Tokyo and Osaka on the occasion of the first anniversary of establishing its MEHK (Meeting & Event Hong Kong) specialized in MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Congress and Event). On February 26, the seminar and workshop were held in Tokyo. 27 tourism delegations including convention facilities, hotels and local tour operators from Hong Kong participated in the event and elaborated on the respective sales points. Albert Tang, Representative, Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Tokyo), mentioned during the welcome address that a construction of high-speed railways started in January this year, expressing his high expectation that the high-speed railway services should help make new travel plans featuring the respective counties in China as well as Hong Kong.

During the seminar, Go Furuya, Senior Marketing Executive East Japan, HKTB made presentations, revealing that a variety of “food” in Hong Kong is absolutely a top feature item and gets increased attention especially after the “Michelin Guide Hong Kong and Macau” was issued last year. Also, Hong Kong will see in the latter part of this year a completion of the International Commerce Centre (ICC Tower), which will be the world’s third tallest building with 118 stories. By the end of 2011, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel will be located in ICC Tower. 1881 Heritage which was opened last year offers excellent shopping, dining and other facilities, enriched with sophisticated services. On the other hand, there have been an increasing number of inquiries about nature experiences. Furuya explained about activities enabling visitors to Hong Kong to have contact with nature that include the pink dolphin-watching, tree-planting and volunteer work. As the Hong Kong government allocates a part of the profits from these activities to the conservation of nature, he said that the visitors to Hong Kong can also contribute to society while they enjoy experiencing nature.

Some companies decided already during the workshop to hold MICE in Hong Kong. An event of several thousands of people is said to have been planned during this year. Kunio Kano, Regional Director-North Asia, HKTB, reminded that “Japan-Hong Kong Tourism Exchange Year 2009” has been prolonged until March this year, hoping that the travel industry will also take full advantage of the extension in promoting MICE.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.