In addition to officials from destinations across Japan, travel service providers representing the latest travel styles and trends gathered at INTEX Osaka in order to showcase their offerings and give new inspiration to travellers, with a total of 156 organizations exhibiting. The travel styles on display included not just traditional tourism packages but also workation offerings, educational travel, micro-tourism ideas, travel tech, and many other tourism-related services.
Over the course of the event’s three days, a total of 4,775 people visited the Japan Tourism Showcase, and 585 business talks were scheduled between service providers and their new potential partners, bringing about renewed interest, attention, and appeal within the travel industry.
The upcoming Golden Week holidays, summer vacation, and the autumn period are peak travel seasons in Japan, meaning that this exhibition was held at the perfect moment to reignite consumer demand for travel as well as to foster new connections for industry professionals. The Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau as well had its own station within the event’s Kansai booth and also hosted seminars to foster discussion on key travel topics.
An exhibition to reignite demand for the travel industry
Although the tourism industry has taken a serious blow amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the outlook promises to be bright with Japan’s successful vaccine rollout and popular tourism stimulus programs from local governments across the country encouraging people to travel again. Although international travel to and from Japan remains difficult, travel demand within Japan is expected to rapidly recover. Additionally, travel styles and needs have greatly shifted in response to the pandemic, with traveller demand expecting more diverse and enhanced as well as brand new service offerings from across different industries.
With the 2025 World Expo opening in Osaka, Kansai in only three years, the region will continue to develop as Japan’s new gateway for travellers around the world. Osaka will become a showcase for the wonders of travel in Japan and will serve as a hub for encouraging travellers to see all that Japan has to offer. With this in mind, the Japan Tourism Showcase in Osaka, Kansai was created as a joint initiative from government, economic, and travel-industry circles across Osaka and the Kansai region to become a catalyst for recovery in the tourism industry.
Exhibition booths with excited crowds
Within the venue, destinations from across Japan were on display to allure visitors with exciting travel ideas in their area. Kyoto showcased their special sake and Abashiri, Hokkaido brought drift ice all the way from the northernmost part of Japan for visitors to touch. The dining area even featured food trucks selling specialities from across the country otherwise rare to find outside of their home regions.
The next Japan Tourism Showcase is planned to be held Friday, March 24- Sunday, March 26, 2023, at INTEX Osaka.
Find out more about Osaka’s meetings industry here.
