Tourism Powerhouse KKday Now Focused on the Japanese Market

KKday is a Taiwan-founded company that operates one of the biggest online reservation sites in Asia. It has hundreds of thousands of travel offerings available, covering more than 550 cities in 92 countries, and its platform focused on local tours and activities is quite popular. The booking site offers better travel experiences and enhanced convenience for many users, and is vying for increased presence in the Japanese tourism DX market, which has seen a surge in demand since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ohbuchi explains, "Our company was founded in 2014 and we set up our branch office in Japan in 2016. Japan is a market with tremendous potential on three fronts: inbound, outbound and domestic tourism. It has a population of over 100 million people as well as a thriving economy. Japan has wonderful cities and abundant natural beauty; the country is safe and the people are friendly. Japan is a very important investment target for KKday as we aim to become the top online booking site in Asia.”

The Japanese tourism industry is facing its own particular set of challenges. Particularly in the area of optional tours and activities, "DX at local suppliers has been lagging," according to Ohbuchi.

"In terms of hotels and accommodations, collaboration with overseas online travel agents (OTAs) has always been solid. But at the same time, many local non-hotel tourism suppliers are still managing their inventory and bookings on paper. This kind of request-based booking system inevitably results in a time lag when users make reservations," he said.

He continues, "We believe that DX in the tourism sector will become increasingly widespread. For example, QR codes and digital payments are finally becoming common, and I feel that on-site digital literacy has been increasing significantly. Promoting DX in tourism will yield many benefits, including eliminating losses of opportunity through more efficient sales and addressing manpower and human resource shortages, just to name a few areas that can be improved."

KKday's prospects in Japan's tourism sector, anticipated to see sustained high-value growth, is filled with potential according to Ohbuchi.

"We are convinced that we can secure a balance in the tourism business when both inbound and outbound tourism are made viable. Regarding the culinary sphere, at restaurants and elsewhere, there are still an abundance of tourism resources in Japan that have not been explored in depth. From the viewpoint of product and commercial development, there remains significant room for growth in the Japanese tourism market. At KKday, we are focusing on inbound demand, while also strengthening our business in outbound tourism from Japan, as well as Japanese domestic tourism, to keep every type of new customer satisfied."

Ohbuchi believes that Japan's tourism market is highly alluring, with great untapped potential as an investment target. Moving forward, we will be keeping a close eye on KKday's moves in the travel and tourism sectors.