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.

Kinki Nippon Tourist (KNT) intends to make 2010 the revival year of overseas group travel to attain a 40 percent growth in the number of group customers over last year. Yoshinori Ochi, senior managing director of KNT, spoke at the 8th Overseas Travel Exchange Convention held on February 9, “Overseas travel revenue in 2009 made no gains despite a moderate growth in the number of customers. Group sales, in particular, declined 25 percent, which triggered deterioration in KNT’s business performance,” and continued, “What it takes to return to profitability this year is to restore the strength now in overseas group sales. That is everything. Our energy and tenacity are required to make Japanese economy vibrant.”

Shoichi Gonda, executive officer, says, “Enquiries about group tour planning is increasing. In addition to economical skeleton-type tours, those rich in contents are being requested. It is too early to say the worst is behind us, but we see some light at the end of the tunnel.” So he is eager to generate momentum by taking this opportunity.

Gonda is hopeful of making more business in 2010 of group tours bound for Hawaii and other long-haul destinations as he has got a number of requests for consultation and estimation to such destinations. He says KNT has changed a buying method in Europe and, therefore, can offer decent hotels at competitive prices.

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Kinki Nippon Tourist (KNT) posted 38.2 billion yen in travel sales for October 2009, down 15 percent from last year, of which overseas travel was 11.5 billion yen, down 21.7 percent, and domestic travel was 25.4 billion yen, down 13.3 percent. In overseas travel sales, group travel sank 23.9 percent to 4.0 billion yen with ordinary groups falling 22.8 percent to 2.7 billion yen and student groups down 26.1 percent to 1.2 billion yen. Package tours also plunged 24.4 percent to 4.1 billion yen with Holiday dropping 24.3 percent to 4.1 billion yen and other packages plummeting 71.8 percent to 2 million yen.

Domestic travel saw a decline of 13.3 percent to 25.4 billion yen. Group travel booked a marginal loss of 1.2 percent at 13.1 billion yen, but package tours of Mate were down 25.4 percent to 7.4 billion yen while other package tours rose 37.5 percent to 2.5 million yen. Inbound travel jumped 69.2 percent to 0.8 billion yen to register rebounding performance for the first time in five months.

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.