Japanese technology and investment firm Softbank is launching an online travel agency and will list inventory on Alitrip, the travel platform run by Alibaba.
It will offer trips to Japan to Chinese visitors. Japan is one of the most popular international destinations for Chinese outbound travellers, with interest continuing to increase.
Official figures show that 3.8 million Chinese people visited Japan in the twelve months to September 2015, compared with 2.4 million in the same period last year.
Softbank says that it is looking to attract visitors to areas of Japan other than the so-called golden route which takes in the major cities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. It is looking at independent travellers rather than the traditional group visitors.
It is hoping that annual sales will reach 20 billion yen ($165 million) by 2020 when Tokyo will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The agency is slated to go live on Alitrip on November 11.
Other details are thin on the ground - the official confirmation is only available in Japanese - but a spokesperson confirmed that coverage of the deal on the WSJ's Japan blog were accurate.
It is not clear at this stage where the inventory will be sourced from. Softbank has "sought expertise from Japan’s largest travel agency, JTB Corp" for the project. It is also not clear whether the agency will have an independent presence or if it will exist only as part of the Alitrip marketplace.
Softbank owns 32% of Alibaba.
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