Inbound Japan #2— May 2019 Roundup
Monthly roundup of news and development updates from Japan Travel, as well as insights into some of the work we do.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
– How we did in May
– Inbound Travel News in Japan
– Highlights from Japan Travel
How we did in May
Sky Intrigue for #Hilton100
We joined forces with Hilton to sell a special, exclusive stay plan in celebration of their 100th anniversary on 31st May— with bespoke luxury on offer courtesy of Conrad’s superior stays and travel by supercar and private charter aircraft. More about the announcement here > (Japanese)
Knowledge Base
We’re unveiling an upgrade of our support pages, for all site users to take advantage of. We call it the Knowledge Center.
Our guidance has come a long way since its humble beginnings.
Back in 2015, I took an early decision to do away with PDF documentation in favour of fluid HTML — the latter offers improved accessibility, mobile support, search-friendly qualities and — let’s face it — is just faster to update.
However our style guide never aged so well. It grew to cover a variety of admittedly non-style topics yet still admirably clinged to a single page format.
The new Help Center takes a user-centric approach to problem-solving by structuring support info around the type of users, their needs and their related goals.
Our hope is that it’s now much easier to find what you are looking for, and we expect new data points will help lead us there too.
Page interaction data will offer us a glimpse of what content is needed most, as well as what content performs well or even reveal potential pain points where guidance is failing to lead users to their intended goal. This gives us the confidence to make changes over time — backed by what the metrics tell us.
The new approach also allows us to pursue more long tail topics that should not only be useful to ambitious writers but also attract new members to the site.
As well as just getting things done, learning is a key theme for the Help Center. Users can find info that helps make their articles more compelling or better optimised for SEO.
In some cases, we tell you what we think works best, but we also blend in recommendations and links to other authoritative sites on certain topics too.
Inbound News in May
Reiwa Era defines Golden Week 2019
Emperor Akihito’s Heisei era drew to a close after 31 years, with Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement heralding the arrival of Japan’s Reiwa (令和) era. Timed with the celebrations, one additional public holiday was legislated for 2019, giving rise to a 10-day Golden Week holiday (successive public holidays).
Golden Week is something of a boon for the domestic travel industry thanks to a huge spike in demand for travel services. Unfortunately, it is something of a minefield for inbound travellers, with roads, airports and stations often packed, delays common, accommodation booked up and prices at peak levels.
Other inbound travel news
- RWC 2019 FanZones announced
- More on Hilton Hotel 100 anniversary
- Japan’s Narita airport rolls out security robots in run-up to 2020 Olympics
- Japan begins testing its 248 mph next-gen bullet train
May Highlights from Japan Travel
A selection of content from across Tokyo, Kyoto and Kanagawa. A new port guide format debuts with Osanbashi port area information, while we got to see TeamLab’s latest slice of digital art at the traditional Meijiza theatre in Tokyo.
