Published on : Tuesday, August 14, 2018
On the weekend, the Territory greeted the first wide-bodied aircraft charter flight of Japanese tourists to the NT through one of the largest travel wholesalers in Japan, JTB World Vacations.
Minister for Tourism and Culture, Lauren Moss stated that the charter with JTB World Vacations shows growing marketing activity in Japan is paying off. In Japan, JTB World Vacations is the Territory’s primary distribution partner.
The chartered Qantas A330 plane flight was the first of its kind to visit the Top End from Japan, and follows widespread Tourism NT marketing initiations to pull more Japanese visitors to the NT, and specifically the Top End.
Over two flights, the charter has carried roughly 357 passengers from Darwin to Narita, Japan and return and is worth an estimated $600,000 in visitor spending in the NT.
Japan is the fourth largest tourism market in the Territory and is tremendously important to the NT.
In the year ending March 2018 24,000 Japanese tourists visited the NT, which was around 13 percent increase on the previous year.
Of the Japanese visitors to the NT who were questioned about where they had visited during their trip to the NT, 87 percent replied that they went to Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park.