*HIS has largely increased bookings of package tours for GW

HIS survey finds that five days courses for beach resorts in Asia or in Micronesia, Hawaii and Asian cities are particularly preferred for the Golden Week season this year (April 26 to May 7). If you take two days off on May 1 and 2, you can take nine consecutive holidays from April 26 to May 7, and even though you work as usual, you can take five consecutive holidays at least from May 3 to May 7. Therefore, the busiest departure day will be May 3, according to HIS.

This Week Headline
*HIS has largely increased bookings of package tours for GW
*R&C Tours strengthens sales of land packages for FIT
+Increasing sales of high-grade hotel products
*Cruise Vacations is focusing on the luxury market
+Need to encourage travelers to make early booking
*NAA does not specify particular goal for listing its stocks in its midterm plan
*Narita reduced foreign passengers for February
*Kansai has no visible influence from the open of Kobe Airport so far
*Finnair will add one more flight on its Kansai route
*JAL suffered large reduction of domestic passengers for February
*JAL air transport result for January 2006
*Two accused air traffic controllerswere sentenced to innocence for JAL's near-collision

*Japan-China Tourism Exchange Year is officially kicked off

An opening ceremony for Japan-China Tourism Exchange Year 2006 was held in Tokyo on March 10, joined by a Chinese delegation, which consisted of about 80 tourism-related members, including China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Vice Chairman Zhang Xiqing. At the ceremony, Hiroshi Maruyama, Vice Minister for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "Tourism exchange between Japan and China was inactive in 2005. However, the Japan-China Tourism Exchange Year is a big chance to expand tourism exchange between both nations this year and toward the 35th anniversary of diplomatic normalization between Japan and China next year."

This Week Headline
*Japan-China Tourism Exchange Year is officially kicked off
+Ambassador Wang Yi values tourism exchanges for diplomatic improvement
*NTS places DP Tabist as the second core business
+Next step is a complete online procedure including payment
*Rakuten Travel begins a campaign for its DP products
*JCB will start Hawaii Project under the auspices of HTJ
*JAL nearly achieves its e-ticket rate of 40% on international flights
*ANA and SWR agree on comprehensive tie-ups
*Domestic local flights decreased passengers for 2005 despite the open of Centrair
*New Kitakyushu Airport opened, Star Flyer started flight business
*Airlines enjoyed high load factors on Kobe flights for the first month
*Kansai could not stop decrease of international passengers

*KNT aims at increase of Guam customers with purchase and production integrated

Yoshinori Ochi, Kinki Nippon Tourist (KNT) Executive Officer and Holiday Tours Micronesia (HTM) President, said at an interview with the Wing Travel Weekly, "I believe Guam is a destination to accept a wide variety of tourists including incentives or educational trips. Itis possible for us to accomplish both aims to increase customers for Guam and to increase revenue by providing value-added products."By integrating the purchase and planning functions of HTM for Eastern Japan region into KNT, KNT will enhance the sales system for Guam to increase its customers for Guam from 65,000 in 2005 to 100,000 in 2008.

This Week Headline
*KNT aims at increase of Guam customers with purchase and production integrated
+Making efforts to expand sales in local regions
*HKTB enhances its business for the incentive market
*Working group meeting for Japan-U.S. tourism promotions will restart
*KAL and AAR will largely increase flight services for Japan
*ANA will welcome passengers with new services at Narita
*JAL will begin express cargo business particularly for China
*NAA hopes to start the 2nd runway extension project this summer
*New Kitakyushu Airport hopes large increase of users for large increase of seats
*Centrair was used by 11.9 million passengers for the first business year

*The JAL internal conflict forces CEO to leave his office

JAL announced at a news conference on March 1 that JAL Group CEO Toshiyuki Shinmachi will move to chairman without right of representation fromthe Group CEO, and instead Haruka Nishimatsu, senior vice presidentof JAL Corporation (the JAL Group holding company) and the two mainoperating companies of JAL International and JAL Domestic, will be promoted to new CEO. The change will officially be effective afterapproval of the annual general meeting of shareholders in late Junethis year. Shinmachi remains in his present post as CEO until the shareholders' meeting

This Week Headline
*The JAL internal conflict forces CEO to leave his office
*JAL aims to move into the consolidated black for FY2006 under new midterm plan
+20% reduction of international passenger flights
+Additi0nal 60 billion yen investment to recovery of reliability
*COA boosts local flight demands by working out "Hometown Airline" concept
*Tahiti aspires for expansion of themarket through a new promotional campaign
*KNT successfully increased net profit for FY2005 by 71.6% to 2 billion yen
*Nippon Travel Agency marked increases both in revenue and profit
*Top Tour achieved the highest-ever consolidated net profit
*Narita reduced passengers for Korea
*Kansai reduced international passengers for January
*ANA Group still decreased its monthly international flight passengers
*Galaxy Airlines has applied for a business license to the Ministry