Kei Shibata, president and CEO of Venture Republic and its travel meta search engine, Travel.jp, told the WIT Australia conference that Japanese travellers are now making very late booking decisions. Book today, fly tomorrow has become a trend, he said.
Given that there will be 18.2 million smart phones shipped to Japan this year, it made sense to use that channel to offer late deals, Shibato said.
Currently 40 percent of visitors to Travel.jp access the site via mobile phone, the rest by computer. Shibata suggested that to reach this huge and growing market suppliers should roll out smart phone apps in Japanese.
Of the three major social media networks in Japan, miki was the biggest with 23.3 million members, the majority of them aged in their 20s.
