TokyoTomo Travel Guide

The consolidated financial statements of Nippon Travel Agency (NTA) for the year ended in December 2009 (January 1 to December 31, 2009) disclosed that operating revenue plummeted 17.3 percent from the previous year to 41,597 million yen. Operating loss swelled by 1,038 million yen to 1,602 million yen, posting a loss for two straight years. Recurrent loss more than doubled to 657 million yen, and net loss tripled to 1,062 million yen. Global economic slowdown and the new type of influenza incurred corporate restraint on business trips and cancellation of group tours, driving the agency into the corner.

In 2009, NTA set up MICE Department within the headquarters to get hold of group travel and corporate business and at the same time reorganized the business location network in the Tokyo metropolitan area in an attempt to have a bigger share of the market. A new computer system was made operative to get a slice of growing online business in overseas travel in a move to offer price-appealing products and capture late bookings. The agency reviewed store management including business days and business hours to find the optimum in pursuit of cost-efficiency.

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Nippon Travel Agency (NTA) made a presentation on February 17 of the spring/summer series of package tours inviting contract retailers in Kanto area and requested their cooperation in capturing early bookings of these tours. Terumi Kinashi, general manager of Sales Dept. & Tokyo Agency Sales Office at NTA’s East Japan Regional Headquarters, said at the presentation, “Late bookings are on the increase, but they come mostly on the Internet. You are cordially requested to take steps to solicit early bookings,” and emphasized that it is the time for sales blitz with Mach and Best Tour. Currently, the sales of these package tours for departures of January through March are progressing at the rate of about 20 percent growth over last year. Booking for April and onward, including the spring holiday season, are reported to be brisk. NTA aims to handle 165,000 customers on Mach and Best Tour for the spring/summer season, up 10 percent year on year, as the agency has enriched the tour contents and sells special tours in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Best Tour.

NTA has made semiannual basic tours operative for seven-month period in order to avoid their duplication in tour brochures and to encourage early bookings by according some privileges. Europe and China were selected as priority destinations on which its sales efforts are to be focused. In the “Best Buy Europe” tour, the agency has chosen a hotel at the quarter where people can enjoy a stroll along the town streets, not to mention a convenient location for public transportation and tourist spots. There are some other tours that feature exquisite meals. In China-bound tours, NTA highlights such uniqueness as rare sceneries visible only at limited time of the day, a visit to Jiuzghaigou Valley, and Shanghai Expo. The tour to Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong sold in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Best Tour visits the Jiuzghaigou Valley at 7:30 a.m. when tourists are scarce to let the tour members enjoy the place to their heart’s content.

Sales of package tours to the United States are on the path to recovery after the slump caused by the spread of the new strain of influenza. Bookings for departure in April through June are coming in at the growth of 35 percent over last year. Their average tour price is higher than other destinations, the agency is hopeful of making up for the deficit experienced a year earlier. Those tours to the U.S. are accentuated by excursions to enjoy great outdoors. One of such tours travels to the north rim of Grand Canyon that is one of the best spots to view the canyon but is rarely visited on tours, or makes a two-day excursion to Arches National Park.

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.

JTB Corp. has taken a step toward realignment of its retail stores across the nation. Its public relation office denied the number to scrap is as many as 200 as was reported by some newspaper, criticizing that it was a mere guess. However, it admitted that scrutiny is going on to reassess store function and network more broadly than usual. It remains to be seen how many stores are going to be closed, when the store network restructuring is completed, or whether the jobs are cut, but the spokesman suggested that the revamp could take place on a large scale. Incidentally, the number of existing stores, including registered offices for corporate sales and merchandizing operation, totals 940.

Store realignment is an agenda taken up in the medium-term business plan having started from fiscal 2009 in a bid to save operating costs. The aggravate revenue of 14 companies in JTB Group for the first half of this fiscal year plunged 17.7 percent to 557 billion yen under the influence of the new influenza. With profit margins ever dwindling, JTB seeks to improve profitability by cutting costs through store realignment and focusing more on online business.

Online sales are estimated to comprise 7 percent of total sales in this fiscal year and are expected to grow to 12 percent in FY2011, and the kinds of travel products salable online are to be increased to 300,000, twice the current number. Hiromi Tagawa, president and CEO, told a Travel Vision reporter last year that the information technology investment should go to contents rather than to equipments and facilities. So far as his policy remains unchanged ever since, he should have it in mind that the company develops merchandise that is unique to JTB like the ones associated with tourism-oriented community exchange. It also expects to have bookings through the third party’s website as well as bookings from its own website and Tornos site started last January.

As far as other major travel agencies are concerned, Kinki Nippon Tourist has closed 27 stores since January 2008 when it established KNT Tourist but opened in the meantime 23 new stores. Nippon Travel Agency has not undergone a major restructuring either but continues to scrap and build stores as usual depending on their performance. These two agencies are equally positive in boosting online sales but appear to have not set out yet to reorganize their store network.

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.