Summer travel in Japan seen beating pre-COVID levels
Domestic travel in Japan is on track to potentially outpace pre-pandemic figures this summer, with reservations for flights, trains and hotels all surging compared with the same period last year. Bookings for domestic flights during Japan’s Bon holidays in mid-August increased a combined 30% at All Nippon Airways and budget affiliate Peach, according to data released Thursday by parent ANA Holdings. The tally of 1.79m passengers is 3% higher than for the same holidays in 2019 and marks the first time the carriers surpassed their pre-COVID performance for a long holiday period. Japan Airlines said its group's domestic bookings for the Bon holidays increased 16% on the year to 1.16m, or 94% of the 2019 figure. Overall, 11 Japanese airlines logged a year-on-year rise of 23% to 3.68m bookings for domestic passengers. In international flights, ANA saw bookings for travelers departing from Japan during the Bon holidays reach around 50% of the pre-COVID figure -- up from around 30% for the Golden Week holidays in May. JAL reported a 58% increase on the year in international flights to roughly 210,000, or about 70% of the 2019 figure. Train traffic is also expected to surge during the period. As of the end of July, the Japan Railways group had seen bookings across its six operators increase around 50% on the year to 2.7m. This equals around 90% of bookings in 2018. A total of 471 bullet trains are scheduled to run on the Tokaido shinkansen line, which connects Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka, on Aug. 10 -- a daily record for the Bon holidays. The boost extends to the hotel industry. Hotel reservations for August on the Rakuten Travel website are up around 30% by guest nights from the same month of 2019. Strong demand has led to a surge in hotel prices. The Royal Park Hotel Iconic in Tokyo's Shiodome waterfront district has roughly doubled daily room rates on the year for August, partly on an influx of overseas tourists driven by a weak yen. The average spending for a domestic trip this summer will grow around 10% from the same period of 2019 to 40,000 yen ($281) per person, travel agency JTB predicts.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-08-04/general/summer-travel-in-japan-seen-beating-pre-covid-levels
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Summer travel in Japan seen beating pre-COVID levels
Domestic travel in Japan is on track to potentially outpace pre-pandemic figures this summer, with reservations for flights, trains and hotels all surging compared with the same period last year. Bookings for domestic flights during Japan’s Bon holidays in mid-August increased a combined 30% at All Nippon Airways and budget affiliate Peach, according to data released Thursday by parent ANA Holdings. The tally of 1.79m passengers is 3% higher than for the same holidays in 2019 and marks the first time the carriers surpassed their pre-COVID performance for a long holiday period. Japan Airlines said its group's domestic bookings for the Bon holidays increased 16% on the year to 1.16m, or 94% of the 2019 figure. Overall, 11 Japanese airlines logged a year-on-year rise of 23% to 3.68m bookings for domestic passengers. In international flights, ANA saw bookings for travelers departing from Japan during the Bon holidays reach around 50% of the pre-COVID figure -- up from around 30% for the Golden Week holidays in May. JAL reported a 58% increase on the year in international flights to roughly 210,000, or about 70% of the 2019 figure. Train traffic is also expected to surge during the period. As of the end of July, the Japan Railways group had seen bookings across its six operators increase around 50% on the year to 2.7m. This equals around 90% of bookings in 2018. A total of 471 bullet trains are scheduled to run on the Tokaido shinkansen line, which connects Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka, on Aug. 10 -- a daily record for the Bon holidays. The boost extends to the hotel industry. Hotel reservations for August on the Rakuten Travel website are up around 30% by guest nights from the same month of 2019. Strong demand has led to a surge in hotel prices. The Royal Park Hotel Iconic in Tokyo's Shiodome waterfront district has roughly doubled daily room rates on the year for August, partly on an influx of overseas tourists driven by a weak yen. The average spending for a domestic trip this summer will grow around 10% from the same period of 2019 to 40,000 yen ($281) per person, travel agency JTB predicts.<br/>
