TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Rina Nakaya of Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM), Government of Dubai, emphasized at its recent seminar & workshop that it would further implement an enhanced sales promotion, citing, “DTCM defines the year 2010 as the year of Dubai’s turnaround.”

The aggregate number of overnights in Dubai by foreign visitors during 2009 edged up by one percent year-on-year to 7,583,079. The number of Japanese overnights, however, dropped drastically by 40 percent to 56,460, hit by the global economic downturn followed by the outbreak of the H1N1 new swine flu and further hit by harmful rumors in the media. 2010 is a special year for Dubai as it has finally realized its seven-year-old wish” to start the Narita/Dubai service by Emirates (EK). Qatar Airways (QR) and Etihad Airways (EY) have also started services to Narita. These airlines have brought a capacity increase of nearly 30 percent to the routes from Japan to Dubai. Commenting on the capacity increase, Nakaya said, “It is now extremely important for Dubai to secure correct local information and help attract travel demand.” “We have set the target of 100,000 Japanese visitor arrivals for the year 2010 and we shall strive to reach the goal as much as possible,” she emphasized.

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Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) released an estimate of Japanese overseas travelers for March 2010 which reads 1,552,000, up 9.4 percent from last year, registering a growth following the month before last. JNTO attributes the growth to demand stimulation caused by flight increase on landing slot expansion at Narita Airport and subsequent new services entered by Etihad Airways, Emirates, and Air Macau. The strong trend of yen rate might have made people feel overseas travel is not so expensive.

Foreign visitors to Japan exhibited a positive growth for five consecutive months with 710,200 arrivals for March, up 24.9 percent. The jump for the month is partly due to the rebound from the sharp drop witnessed a year ago driven by appreciated yen and economic stagnation. The bolstered activities of Visit Japan Campaign (VJC) and broadcast of foreign-made TV dramas shot in Japan helped create travel demand to Japan. Among the major 12 markets, all countries except the U.K. outperformed the results of a year ago and China, Thailand, France, and Germany recorded all-time highs. The highest growth was attained by Korea with 56.3 percent (169,400 arrivals), followed by Singapore with 41.3 percent (13,500 arrivals) and China with 22.3 percent (123,500 arrivals).

Just for reference, total of the Japanese outbound travelers during the fiscal year 2009 (April 2009 through March 2010) numbered 15,601,114, down 1.0 percent, and that of foreign visitors to Japan was 7,247,917, down 6.7 percent. (Note the figures for February and March are preliminary in both cases.)

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.

Etihad Airways (EY), based in Abu Dhabi and the flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates, commenced flight today out of Chubu airport, Nagoya to Abu Dhabi via Beijing, using a 2 class configuration (JCL:22, EY:240) Airbus A330 aircraft. Etihad Airways will initially fly four times a week to Nagoya, and will increase to five flights a week in the coming months.

Etihad Airways will further expand its Japan operations by launching the Narita, Tokyo-Abu Dhabi route in March. By adding Nagoya and Tokyo to its network, it offers services to eight destinations in the Far East including Beijing, Jakarta, Manila, Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, strenghtening its position in the region.

In addition to its own operations, Etihad Airways will also offer codeshare services with Japan’s ANA from 1 March, offering connections for Etihad passengers from Nagoya to Chitose and Fukuoka and through Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Osaka, and for ANA passengers, connections to Etihad’s worldwide network via its Abu Dhabi hub.

Etihad flight schedule

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