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.
Japan-Hawaii Tourism Council Frames Action Plan to Activate Traffic
End-April 2008
At the first meeting of Japan-Hawaii Tourism Council (JHTC) held
the other day, it was agreed that parties concerned should mutually
endeavor to offer attractive tours to the market by way of increasing
visitors to Hawaii notwithstanding limited supply of air seats.
The Council has framed measures to take hereafter in the name of
action plan, and will review the progress of each agenda at the
second meeting scheduled for September so that each member of the
Council should take responsibility for its assignment and cooperate
with each other to fulfill a shared role.
Members from Hawaii have a grim outlook for the future of travel
business because shutdown of Aloha Airlines' operation and bankruptcy
of ATA Airlines are assumed to cut down the seat supply by more or
less than a million on a yearly basis from the west coast of the
mainland U.S.A., which will inevitably push the air fare higher.
Since the Council's first meeting was held under the circumstances of
such squeezed seat supply and the threatened fare hike, both parties
of Japan and Hawaii saw eye to eye on making the most of the demand
in the Japanese market.
Members of the JHTC voiced that exploring demand in regional
markets and boosting demand for off-season period should be the
measures not to be missed as part of the action plan. They stress
creating off-season demand is crucial from the viewpoint of utilizing
seats on scheduled flights effectively; therefore, they will urge
travel agencies as well as carriers to work aggressively along these
lines. It should also be noted that the strength of Hawaii as
destination, including climate and other superior points, is not
fully conveyed to the consumers and needs to be appealed once again,
they said.
Following the discussion on these issues, Takashi Ichikura,
director of Hawaii Tourism Japan (HTJ), says it is important to
implement every agenda of the action plan and HTJ is happy to promote
the project in cooperation with travel agencies, airlines, and other
sectors of the industry. Total number of available air seats is
supposed to be about 1.5 million this year, so HTJ is ready to extend
necessary assistance in order to heighten utilization of these seats
and offer attractive tours, he said.
Japan-Hawaii Tourism Council Frames Action Plan to Activate Traffic
At the first meeting of Japan-Hawaii Tourism Council (JHTC) held
the other day, it was agreed that parties concerned should mutually
endeavor to offer attractive tours to the market by way of increasing
visitors to Hawaii notwithstanding limited supply of air seats.
The Council has framed measures to take hereafter in the name of
action plan, and will review the progress of each agenda at the
second meeting scheduled for September so that each member of the
Council should take responsibility for its assignment and cooperate
with each other to fulfill a shared role.
Members from Hawaii have a grim outlook for the future of travel
business because shutdown of Aloha Airlines' operation and bankruptcy
of ATA Airlines are assumed to cut down the seat supply by more or
less than a million on a yearly basis from the west coast of the
mainland U.S.A., which will inevitably push the air fare higher.
Since the Council's first meeting was held under the circumstances of
such squeezed seat supply and the threatened fare hike, both parties
of Japan and Hawaii saw eye to eye on making the most of the demand
in the Japanese market.
Members of the JHTC voiced that exploring demand in regional
markets and boosting demand for off-season period should be the
measures not to be missed as part of the action plan. They stress
creating off-season demand is crucial from the viewpoint of utilizing
seats on scheduled flights effectively; therefore, they will urge
travel agencies as well as carriers to work aggressively along these
lines. It should also be noted that the strength of Hawaii as
destination, including climate and other superior points, is not
fully conveyed to the consumers and needs to be appealed once again,
they said.
Following the discussion on these issues, Takashi Ichikura,
director of Hawaii Tourism Japan (HTJ), says it is important to
implement every agenda of the action plan and HTJ is happy to promote
the project in cooperation with travel agencies, airlines, and other
sectors of the industry. Total number of available air seats is
supposed to be about 1.5 million this year, so HTJ is ready to extend
necessary assistance in order to heighten utilization of these seats
and offer attractive tours, he said.
JTB Releases Low-priced Package Tours for Departure May and June from
Narita with Goal of 7,000 Customers
End-April 2008
JTB World Vacations, Inc. released on April 25 low-priced
overseas package tours departing from Narita Airport, as a series of
LOOK JTB and under the advertising pitch of "Bargain for May & June."
The bottom price of tours to Seoul is 19,800 yen, and 29,800 yen to
Guam, Taipei, and Bangkok. Such low-priced tours had so far been sold
only after the middle of August, but this year this economical
version, covering 27 cities in 14 regions, was put on the market for
the first time for May and June departure to have a mini-peak period
before the big peak of summer.
Bookings at LOOK JTB, as of April 11, show a growth of 9 percent
for May and a decline of 5 percent for June. The augmented sales this
economic version will bring about is intended for strengthening the
bargaining power in buying for autumn/ winter season, according the
public relations office of JTB. It aims to handle 7,000 customers in
this series.
Some tours have special benefits to offer to the customers. Take
tours to Cairns and Gold Coast in Australia, for instance; the
participants are privileged to fly the domestic portion from Fukuoka
or Sapporo to Haneda at a nominal charge of 100 yen for round trip.
Tours to Europe include continental breakfast, and tours to Seoul
offer optional dinner at an extra cost of 1,000 yen. Refer to the
note below for cities covered in this series.
* Cities covered by "Bargain for May & June" of LOOK JTB
Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, London,
Barcelona, Prague, Rome, Florence, Paris, Seoul, Taipei, Bangkok,
Bali, Beijing, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen, Shanghai, Cairns, Gold Coast,
Hawaii, Guam, Saipan, Fiji, New Caledonia
Japan-India Tourism Committee Inaugurated to Promote Tourism to India
End-April 2008
In a bid to achieve the target of 300,000 Japanese visitor
arrivals to India annually, Japan-India Tourism Committee (JITC) was
inaugurated and had its first meeting on April 17. Tsutomu Sato,
president of JR East View Travel Service Co., became chairman, and
Michinori Yamazaki, general manager for Overseas Travel Division,
Travel Marketing & Strategy Headquarters at JTB, and Kenji Sugii,
executive officer and general manager for Overseas Travel Department
at Kinki Nippon Tourist, became vice-chairmen.
Member companies consist of 17 travel agencies including package
tour wholesalers, plus Japan Airlines, Air India, and Thai Airways
International. Osamu Matsuoka, chairman & CEO of Apex International
Inc. was appointed to secretary general.
In starting the first meeting, Mr. Sato stated India is too
premature as a tourist destination to do business with in the
Japanese market and therefore JITC would commit itself to make
foundation for promoting the country in the long view.
Many members of the meeting admitted that travel agency staff are
not knowledgeable about the destination. Yuzo Ito, sales manager for
Passenger at Air India, said customers have more information about
India than agency staff. Kimio Kanasugi, sales manager of SriLankan
Airlines, who attended the meeting as an observer, said, "We have
sponsored agency familiarization tours to South India several times
in the past, but only two of all the JITC member companies present
here today participated in them."
To these comments, travel agency members expressed willingness to
bring themselves to pave the way to the development of the
destination. Kiyotaka Ogawa, director and executive officer at Hankyu
Hanshin Express, added, "Business should be developed cautiously
considering the sensitive and easily-scared nature of the Japanese
people as they are quick in making a retreat once something
unexpected should ever happens." Other members stressed the need of
image strategy and the necessity to improve travel infrastructure
such as motorcoaches and Japanese-speaking guides.
Hiromi Yonetani, director and deputy secretary general of Japan
Association of Travel Agents (JATA), who attended the meeting as
another observer, said, "Opinions about India uttered by visitors are
sharply divided. To push customers too hard to go to India just for
the sake of increasing visitors may end up causing a big problem. It
is vitally important for tour producers to do an adequate research of
the destination and present a clear-cut travel theme or a purpose."
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