Japan Travel Trade Weekly News
Keeping you abreast of what's going on in the
Japanese travel and tourism industries.
News consolidated by Travel Vision, Inc. updated every week.
Cathay Pacific Points Out Differences in Fuel Surcharges Among
Competitors
Late-March 2008
Commenting on the soaring fuel surcharges during a press briefing
held on March 18, Wong, Marketing and Sales Manager Japan, Cathay
Pacific Airways (CX) underlined, "We have lowered our fuel surcharges
to more reasonable levels", pointing out the difference from the
competitors in order to attract more customers.
For example, said Wong, Cathay Pacific charges on the Japan/ Hong
Kong roundtrip 3,600 yen while other airlines charge from 12,000 yen
to 16,000 yen for the same routing. For the Southeast Asia roundtrip,
Cathay charges 7,200 yen and other airlines charge from 16,000 yen to
25,000 yen and for the round trip to Europe, Cathay and the other
airlines charges 17,800 yen and 26,000 to 35,000 yen respectively
When the fuel surcharges continue to rise and, reportedly,
further discourage Japanese travelers to go abroad, the amount of
fuel surcharges has certainly become a decisive factor when planning
an overseas travel, observes the airline.
Hikaku.com Takes Over GTO, Evaluating Highly Its Real Time
Transaction Capability, Now Seeks to Generate Synergistic Effects
Late-March 2008
Hikaku.com Corp. passed a resolution at the board of directors on
March 14 to acquire Global Travel Online Inc. (GTO) and make it a
wholly-owned company. The company gets hold of all the outstanding
shares of GTO owned by Sumitomo Corp. at the price of 266 million
yen. The deal will be concluded on April 1, and the shares will be
transferred on April 8.
Hikaku.com offers comparative information online about goods and
services in many fields, and now it will make the own website linked
with the online reservation site of GTO that can respond real time to
seat enquiry, seat request, and settlement of accounts. Now
Haikaku.com becomes able to invite site-visitors by a click to
immediate transactions of travel products after giving consumers
chances to make good comparison.
GTO is known for having introduced Dynamic Package into Japanese
market for the first time ever and has over 2,000 suppliers ranging
from overseas hoteliers, travel agencies, to cruise companies. The
corporate planning office of Hikaku.com says how to collaborate with
GTO is still under study but will soon give it shape. It is expected
to come out with a definite plan that will generate maximum
synergistic effects.
JAL Starts Internet Cruise Booking, Planning Package Tour Sales Also
in Web.
Late-March 2008
Japan Airlines has launched an overseas cruise reservations
system in collaboration with Miki Tourist, establishing the "MYU
Overseas Cruise Booking" system in the JAL's website. The internet
booking not only gives the airline a commission, but also expects to
help the airline to boost its sales in the website.
Cruises bookable in the JAL website are Royal Caribbean and
Celebrity Cruises for which Miki Tourist acts as a general sales
agent (GSA) for Japan offering some 600 courses including Europe. JAL
gives customers 100 mileage points per booking in the website and by
so doing, the airline aims to attract yearly 1200 customers.
JAL and Miki Tourist have been jointly operating the "MYU
Overseas Hotel Reservations" system in the JAL website since 2006.
The newly introduced cruise booking system will further enhance the
business tie-up between the two companies.
Air and cruise tickets have to be separately settled, however and
the system still has room for improvement in order to enhance the
customer convenience. The airline is also considering to provide in
its website package tours featuring cruises produced by major travel
agents. "It seems feasible that the cruise package tours will soon be
launched, "commented the JAL public relations office.
Miki Tourist has tied up its system also with United Airlines and
has meanwhile started cruise reservations. The company intends to
further expand the cruise reservations system, focusing on the
airlines already on-line with the "MYU Overseas Hotel Booking" system.
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