Japanese people will book during certain times of the year all at once due to national holidays (e.g., New Year’s, Golden Week, O-bon, and Silver Week) and their limited use of paid holidays, but people from other countries don’t have the same holidays as Japan, especially Western countries and countries in the Southern Hemisphere.
when there isn't a national holiday in Japan.
That's why, if you're a Japanese hotel owner, you should try to attract foreign tourists to your hotel during the times of year when Japanese people rarely book.
Statistics provided by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism show that foreign tourists from the West stay for longer periods of time because Japan is far and expensive to travel to, so Western tourists in particular stay in Japan for longer.
For many Westerners, Japan is a once-in-a-lifetime destination, so they want to travel around Japan and are more interested in experiencing everyday Japanese things.
Japanese Hotels: Why You Should Try to Attract Foreign Tourists All Year Round
This is what you can do to get rooms filled
Japanese people will book during certain times of the year all at once due to national holidays (e.g., New Year’s, Golden Week, O-bon, and Silver Week) and their limited use of paid holidays, but people from other countries don’t have the same holidays as Japan, especially Western countries and countries in the Southern Hemisphere.
That's why, if you're a Japanese hotel owner, you should try to attract foreign tourists to your hotel during the times of year when Japanese people rarely book.
Statistics provided by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism show that foreign tourists from the West stay for longer periods of time because Japan is far and expensive to travel to, so Western tourists in particular stay in Japan for longer.
For many Westerners, Japan is a once-in-a-lifetime destination, so they want to travel around Japan and are more interested in experiencing everyday Japanese things.
The Most-Visited Prefectures by Foreign Tourists
From January to March 2020, just before countries closed their borders due to the pandemic, Kyoto and Nagano Prefectures, which are also popular among Japanese tourists, saw 823,000 (21.5%) foreign tourists and 190,000 (5%) foreign tourists, respectively.
Are You Targeting the Right Foreign Tourists?
What the numbers say about visitors to Japan
Data collected by the Japan Tourism Agency in 2019 shows that tourists who visited Japan from nearby South Korea, Taiwan, and China showed up in large numbers, but they mostly stayed in and around Tokyo and Osaka.
​
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism reported that, in 2019, visitors from China likely visited the many Buddhist temples in Kyoto and saw 48% of tourists visit the city, while less than 20% of tourists visited Kyoto from Taiwan and South Korea compared to 46% from the United States, 52% from Australia, and 56% from the United Kingdom. The numbers show that English speakers are an important target to reach with marketing in Kyoto.
​
Because tourists from China, Taiwan, and South Korea stay city-centric, they visited Nagano Prefecture 1%, 7%, and 0.3% of the time in 2019, respectively. Meanwhile, tourists from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia went to Nagano Prefecture 3%, 7%, and 18% of the time, respectively, more willing to venture off the beaten path and travel more independently than tourists from East Asia.
Western tourists will stay for longer; spend more money on accommodation, food, and experiences; and travel through Japan more than East Asian tourists. Even though the number of tourists from Asian countries is high, their purpose for visiting Japan is much different from Western tourists.
​
Do you know how to market your hotel and services to them? That's what we can help you do.
Western Travelers Base Their Hotel Decision On:
WHAT YOU'RE MISSING OUT ON BY HAVING A POORLY-TRANSLATED WEBSITE
A Pleasant User Experience
A study by Fuel and Flip.to reveals that a staggering 87% of guests will visit a hotel’s website before making a reservation, so the user experience matters. If the text is hard to understand or the marketing language doesn't cater to them, then they will quickly give up and move on to another hotel's website. Only a native English speaker with a professional marketing background can do this right.
Reputation-building
There is a lot of hotel competition in Japan, especially in the top sightseeing areas. Poorly-written English websites could offend users and damage your hotel's reputation. On the other hand, with the right team to rewrite or create your English website, your hotel will gain a positive reputation and make foreign tourists want to spread the word about your hotel.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Poor English on a hotel website means two things: first, users won't stay on your website, dropping your search ranking, and second, Google won't find the keywords that a Westerner would naturally use when searching for hotels in your area. Machine translation cannot differentiate between strange wording and good wording, which is why you need a professional with experience in SEO and marketing.
WHAT FOREIGN TOURISTS REALLY THINK OF POORLY-WRITTEN REVIEW RESPONSES
52% of individuals would never book a hotel that had zero reviews. (Hotel Business)
80% of people believe hotels that respond to guest reviews care more about their customers. (SiteMinder)
85% of individuals say a hotel’s thoughtful response to an online review improves their impression of it. (SiteMinder)
Source: Reputation Defender
Western travelers frequently use social media and popular OTAs, such as Booking.com and TripAdvisor, to leave feedback on their experiences at hotels.
A Western tourist will thoughtfully write an honest review about their hotel experience, bearing in mind that they have specific preferences that others may or may not have and that other users will take into account when judging whether they want to book that hotel.
As a hotel, even negative reviews offer a chance to make amends to past and future guests if the responses are written in a personal way. After all, even guests who wrote negative reviews took the time out of their day to leave their feedback, so hotels should show their appreciation to guests for that.
Poorly-written review responses or responses using a copy-pasted template are extremely noticeable and show reviewers that you don't care about giving them your time or hiring someone who can communicate with them in English.
Japanese hoteliers should try to ease the stress for foreign travelers visiting their hotels since a trip to Japan will already be full of stressful language barriers and cultural misunderstandings, and we're the bilingual team who can definitely help you manage OTA responses in English.
OUR PREVIOUS SUCCESS
Before Working With Us
Poor SEO: Japanese hotel English website had a Google ranking of greater than 100 (past pg. 10) in the results in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy.
Few Website Visits: A total of 1-2% of organic website traffic to the Japanese hotel English website came from Western countries.
Low Ranking in OTA Results: Our Japanese hotel client was number 97 out of 215 on TripAdvisor and 23 out of 26 on Booking.com before our profile rewrite and review responses in natural English.
While Working With Us
Excellent SEO: Japanese hotel English website and OTA pages ranked at number 3 on Google in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, and ranked within the top 40 in France, Spain, Germany, and Italy.
Increased Website Visits: Organic website traffic to the Japanese hotel English website from Western countries rose to over 20% within three months of the English website rewrite and SEO improvement.
Top Ranking in OTA Results: Our Japanese hotel client jumped to number 27 out of 215 on TripAdvisor and 1 out of 26 on Booking.com after our profile rewrite and review responses in natural English.
