TOKYO – Red Planet Japan Inc. (3350:JP) announced that it welcomed Red Planet Hotels’ ten millionth guest at its Red Planet Sapporo Susukino South hotel on 30 November 2018. Red Planet Japan’s Chief Executive Officer, Tim Hansing, said, “Reaching the 10 million guests mark reflects the success of our strategy to capture the explosive growth in leisure travel among Asian millennials. It was not surprising that our 10 millionth check-in was in Japan, following the rapid expansion of the Japanese tourism industry—especially from the market where our brand is the strongest – South East Asia.”
While the tourism flows to Japan from China and South Korea are well reported, the move by the Japanese government to grant visa waivers or multiple-entry visas for South East Asian visitors has created substantial growth momentum in visitor arrivals. Thailand is now Japan’s 6th largest source market with 700,000 arrivals in the first 8 months of 2018. Growth in visitation from the Philippines has increased 20% annually since 2013, and is expected to surpass Australia in 2019 to become Japan’s 7th largest source of overseas visitors.
Simon Gerovich, Chairman of Red Planet Japan, commented, “The brand recognition of Red Planet Hotels is high amongst South East Asians, and this has helped us to attract guests to our 5 operating hotels in Japan. We currently have 2 hotels under construction, and a further 5 hotels at the planning stage, and so we expect to have a total of 12 Red Planet hotels in Japan by the end of 2020. We are hopeful that, as the Japanese government stimulates more inbound visitation, more visa waivers are granted, particularly for the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam, all of which already supply more visitors to Japan than long-established markets such as Malaysia and Singapore.
Japan’s tourism industry has expanded rapidly over the past 5 years as the government recognised the positive trickle-down economic effects of the in-bound leisure travel industry. The visa waiver program has been a key supporting mechanism to entice visitors, and has proven to be an inducement to regional visitors. With low market penetration in Japan by foreign hotel brands, Red Planet Hotels has made rapid strides to attract in-bound visitors, especially from South East Asia, allowing the brand to accelerate its roll-out in key Japanese cities.
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| Red Planet Hotels |
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About Red Planet Japan, Inc.
Red Planet Japan, Inc. is the JASDAQ-listed Japanese operation of Red Planet Hotels Limited. The company commenced operations in Japan in August 2013 with the opening of Red Planet Okinawa Naha, followed by the opening of Red Planet Tokyo Asakusa in 2015. Red Planet Nagoya Nishiki subsequently opened in October 2017. In June 2018, Red Planet opened Red Planet Sapporo Susukino South, its first property in Sapporo. Red Planet Sapporo Susukino Central and Red Planet Hiroshima Nagarekawa are currently under construction and are expected to open by 2019 and 2020, respectively. The company intends to acquire another 5 development sites by mid-2019. Red Planet Japan has also acquired development sites in Manila, Philippines, with two hotels sequenced to open by 2020. The Company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 3350.
About Red Planet Hotels
Red Planet Hotels, founded in 2010, is a privately-owned regional hotel group focused on Asia’s expanding budget hotel sector. The company owns and operates 30 hotels in Indonesia (7), Japan (5), the Philippines (13), and Thailand (5) for a total of 4,779 rooms. 14 additional hotels, comprising 2,669 rooms, will open across Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines in 2019 and 2020. These hotels will open using Red Planet’s robust and scalable technology platform, providing both advanced reservation software, ensuring a fast and efficient booking process, and local attraction guides for customers. Red Planet comprises a stylish budget hotel offering, with all its properties centrally located and equipped with high-speed Wi-Fi. Red Planet’s companies based in Jakarta (Red Planet Indonesia - PSKT:IJ) and Tokyo (Red Planet Japan - 3350:JP) are listed on the Indonesian and Japanese stock exchanges, respectively. For more information, please visit: www.redplanethotels.com