Rakuten Travel taps int’l demand for off-the-beaten-path Japan spots

Rakuten Travel, Japan’s major online travel agency, is banking on its multilingual website, offering a comprehensive travel guide, to help attract foreign tourists to the country’s off-the-beaten-path destinations.

Rakuten Travel’s focus on less-explored areas comes as the central and local governments are looking into capitalizing on the growing popularity of such secondary destinations by repeat inbound travelers. Such places are often hard to access by public transportation and have only limited multilingual guidance.

The governments are seeking to draw more visitors to Japan’s rural areas to revitalize local economies and divert inbound travelers from the too heavily trafficked “Golden Route” focused on Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Mt. Fuji.

“There are more hidden gems to discover, so I think people will keep coming back and keep wanting to discover the deeper Japan,” Jeremy Bek, the global head of Rakuten Travel, operated by Rakuten Group Inc., said in a recent interview with Kyodo News.

Rakuten Travel website is available in nine languages, including Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Indonesian, and offers a guide to car rentals and a customer call service to respond to troubles encountered during travels, Bek said.

The website introduces various types of authentic accommodations, including “ryokan” inns offering “kaiseki” multicourse dinners, which are a popular option, “machiya,” historic townhouses reflecting traditional Japanese architecture, and “minshuku,” family-run guesthouses providing simple, moderately-priced lodging, he said.

According to the Japan National Tourism Organization’s survey conducted between January and March 2023 on travelers, over 80 percent of respondents in East and Southeast Asia said they want to visit areas other than Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto when they visit Japan.

Bek said some 30 percent of international bookings at Rakuten Travel are for travels to secondary destinations, with more of them also attracted to nature and mountain climbing.

Immersive experiences such as staying in a ryokan and going out to a festival “are very big in demand” among travelers to Japan, he said.

Travel articles on the website, such as “Karatsu Kunchi Festival 2024: Dates, Highlights, and More!” featuring an annual autumn event in a small town in Saga Prefecture in Kyushu, one of Japan’s four main islands, also have in-depth information for tourists, he added.

Other Japanese tourism operators are also offering foreign travelers the chance to experience Japanese culture and nature.

Hokkaido Treasure Island Travel Inc. organizes tailor-made tours in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido with a car, a personal driver and an English-speaking licensed tour guide.

The company said it aims to make it more comfortable for travelers to visit hard-to-access locations for foreign visitors, with options such as dog sledding, snowshoeing, winter river canoeing and ice fishing.

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