[Tourism and Leisure Feature] With the rapid increase in inbound tourism, quality is also important, not just quantity. Sustainable tourism is the trump card of a new tourism strategy « Morning Pitch

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今回は、6 月20 日に開催した「Tourism / leisure special feature"is.

Inbound tourists to reach 50 million by 2030

Demand is recovering rapidly in the domestic tourism and leisure industry, which was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of inbound tourists (foreign visitors to Japan) has hit the 3 million mark in a single month, and spending is also increasing due to the weak yen.

The Basic Plan for Promoting a Tourism Nation, formulated in 2023, set out a strategy to expand the inbound market by 2025: 1) the number of foreign visitors to Japan will be 32 million, 2) travel spending will be 6 trillion yen, and 3) the average spending will be 200,000 yen. However, goals 1 and 2 were both achieved ahead of schedule in 2023.

Based on the current pace, it is predicted that the number of inbound tourists will reach 50 million and travel spending will reach 9 trillion yen by 2030.

Japan is also gaining attention from around the world as a country people want to visit. According to a survey conducted by the Development Bank of Japan in 2023 on the "Ranking of the next countries people want to visit," Japan came out on top with 55% of respondents. Its natural beauty, historical sites, and historical buildings were highly rated, and it surpassed second-place South Korea by 25 points. As Japan attracts global attention, the backgrounds of travelers are becoming more diverse, and it is expected that inbound business opportunities will become even more active.

Overtourism is a growing problem

On the other hand, with the sudden increase in inbound demand, issues related to overtourism (tourist pollution), such as damage to nature and scenery, overcrowding, traffic jams, and littering, are attracting renewed attention. This problem does not only affect tourist destinations and the residents who live there, but also affects tourists, as it leads to a decline in satisfaction. Given this background, there is a strong demand for efforts to focus on quality while aiming to expand tourism quantitatively.

Sustainable tourism is attracting worldwide attention as a new style of tourism that emphasizes quality. It refers to all stakeholders in the tourism market taking a proactive and long-term approach to the economy, environment, and society, and plays an important role in promoting the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).

To promote sustainable tourism, it is necessary to raise awareness of sustainability issues by providing meaningful and satisfying experiences for tourists. Providing attractive content is essential to increasing satisfaction, and interest in 1) experiences in nature and traditional culture, 2) immersive experiences, and 3) everyday local experiences is growing worldwide. It is necessary to clarify the appealing points of these three types of tourism content to tourists.

For nature and traditional culture experiences, the key points are authenticity and a sense of exclusivity; for immersive experiences, the key points are storytelling and seamlessness; and for everyday local experiences, the key points are community and personalization.

Combining these points with startup services and products that fit them is likely to greatly expand the potential of the new sustainable tourism market.

A growing number of services are being launched that allow you to experience nature, traditional culture, and immersive experiences

Startups working on sustainable tourism are appearing one after another. One of the natural and traditional culture experiences is a hot air balloon space sightseeing flight, which Iwatani Giken aims to offer. The mission is to take everyone, from young children to the elderly, to the entrance of space without the need for training or discipline.

A TV station in the Chugoku region partnered with B-Rise to create immersive experiences, providing digital experience content centered on cross reality (XR), which blends reality and virtual space. A major private railway company in Tokyo is providing a travel planning app from Relyon Trip, which seamlessly recommends places based on users' preferences.

A typical example of a local daily life experience is the lodging service provided by Hyakusenrenma, a major private lodging agency, which allows people to experience local life. SAGOJO, a job search site, operates a human resources platform service that matches travelers who want to contribute to local revitalization with local communities.

Startups in the tourism and leisure sector fall into eight areas: reservations/arrangements, accommodation, content provision, payment/cashless, AR/VR/XR, mobility, MaaS, and CRM/marketing. Here we will introduce five of these companies.

 

A membership-based second home that allows you to move easily between the city and nature (Sanu Co., Ltd.)

Sanu offers a membership-based second home service called "SANU 2nd Home," which proposes a lifestyle that allows people to move easily between the city and nature. As of June, the company operates 20 locations with 102 rooms in natural locations 1 to 3 hours from the city. The global vacation rental market is worth 22 trillion yen. Although it far exceeds hotels, the vacation home ownership rate in Japan is 0.6%, which is overwhelmingly smaller than in Europe and the United States, and there is room for the market to expand significantly. By 2025, the company plans to expand to 30 locations with 200 rooms, from Niseko in the north to Amami Oshima in the south.

Develop tourism resources and support attracting customers with mystery solving as the core (FUN SPIRITS Co., Ltd.)

FUN SPIRITS develops tourism resources, supports customer attraction, and promotes local areas with a focus on solving puzzles. With a clear focus on solving puzzles and revitalizing local areas, the company differentiates itself by offering a wide variety of content from a wide range of creators, as well as the ability to launch in a short time frame. Rather than being limited to local, one-off events, the company has mechanisms for users to travel around a wide area, allowing them to experience things that include discovering the charms of the area. To date, more than 80,000 participants from over 40 regions have experienced the charms of their local areas through solving puzzles, and the company aims to hold events in all prefectures in the future.

An application for the wealthy that automatically schedules and arranges travel (Blank Marketing & Management Co., Ltd.)

Blank Marketing & Management provides travel applications specifically for the wealthy. Through an automated scheduling and arrangement system, the company aims to reduce stress by solving a series of problems such as finding and arranging accommodation. Many of the company's staff are former airline flight attendants, so the company offers comprehensive implementation support. In the short term, the company plans to focus on luxury hotels. The company plans to acquire 10 to 15 facilities, with a goal of 200 million yen in sales per facility.

Location-based audio guide specialized in historical content (Gururi Co., Ltd.)

Gururi is a Yokohama National University venture founded by history-loving CEO Nakano during his university days. The company operates GURURI, a location-based audio guide and information platform specializing in historical content. It specializes in castles, temples, shrines, and other sites, and aggregates them on an illustrated map, where users can access museum-style audio guides, post functions, and log the historical sites they have visited. Its unique feature is that it promotes themed tours by creating content related to historical figures and events, rather than just by area.

Anyone can easily create and operate original maps that are closed to specific areas or regional economic zones (Baldright Co., Ltd.)

Boldlight develops and provides the tourism digital transformation platform "Platinum Map" and the commercial facility digital transformation platform "Platinum Mall" based on digital map technology. Anyone can easily create and operate original maps that are closed to specific areas or regional economic zones. The map provides a variety of one-stop services linked to location information, such as congestion information, MaaS integration, stamp rallies, coupons, and audio guides. Through the platform business, we will seamlessly connect space, people, and consumption.

The number of inbound tourists is expected to increase significantly in 2024, surpassing the previous record of 31.88 million people set in 2019. In this context, the government is promoting a strategy to pursue quality rather than just quantity, so sustainable tourism startups in particular are likely to attract more attention.

 

 

▼Theme Leader Profile


Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support Co., Ltd.

Startup Division

Megumi Kaneko

 

He has worked in two major business companies (education and tourism fields) supporting planning, branding and marketing for regional revitalization in Japan. He has also worked in two government agencies on projects supporting business development in rural areas of developing countries and educating business personnel. In his current position, he is involved in supporting startups, forming ecosystems for local governments, and supporting collaboration between startups, local governments and companies, mainly in the Tokai region.

 

 

 

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