The Asia Pacific market has gone through some rapid growth in pockets and also followed a familiar trend of consolidation. It has also seen a few regional players establishing a wider global footprint. Here are some of the
key players and a high-level overview of the markets they work with.
If you are looking to tap into travellers from Japan, it will be worth considering them – however, many of them will not be easy to reach out to with language barriers and methods of operation if you are based outside the region.
Rakuten
Rakuten Travel operates Japan’s largest online hotel reservation website with over 1.8 million room nights booked per month. Rakuten means optimism.
Related company/ies: Voyagin.com
Key markets: Japan, South-East Asia, China, UK, US, Germany
Jalan
Jalan is one of the biggest online hotel and ryokan reservation services in Japan.
Related company/ies: Recruit Holdings
Key markets: Japan, South-East Asia, Europe, US
JAPANiCAN.com
JapanIcan with over 1.100 offices in 38 countries, and over 27.000 employees, JTB is one of the biggest Travel Agencies in the world. JAPANiCAN.com is its OTA arm and provides online bookings for hotels, ryokan, bus tours, and other activities across Japan
Related company/ies: JTB
Key markets: Japan
Ikyu
Yahoo! Japan integrated its OTA business into Ikyu.com in 2016 and is currently a booking gateway for Yahoo! Japan
Related company/ies: Yahoo
Key markets: Japan
Evolable
Over a million monthly transactions across Evolable Asia’s three OTAs: Tripstar (multiple language portal site, both domestic and international flights and hotels), Soratabi (domestic flight search), and Tabiweb (overseas hotel booking)
Related company/ies: Tripstar, Soratabi, Tabiweb
Key markets: Japan (Tabiweb for overseas bookings)